MageCrafter - 13. Chapter 13

“Gods Dammit Baldric.” Said a very exasperated Tiefling Maid early in the morning at the Bertolde Estate.

Shahnaz knew she was going to walk in on this one day, especially when she was expressly asked to walk in without knocking. If there was one thing she knew about her master, Lord Baldric, it was that he enjoyed showing off for an audience in all aspects of life. He was a consummate showman no matter what he was doing, though there were times she’d wish he’d dial it back a little bit. That thought crossed her mind particularly this morning when she walked inside his master bedroom to take his order for breakfast.

She was greeted with the sight of Lord Baldric thrusting away into the bed, and on either side of his hips was the slender legs and flexing and trembling small feet of his favorite little lynxian, as well as the rapidly swishing almond colored tail that was excitedly dancing about between Lord Baldrics legs. She couldn’t hear any noise coming out of Kotik, so she could only assume he was gagged to one degree or another. He certainly seemed to be enjoying himself however from the way his legs were trembling and hugging Lord Baldric by the middle.

“Oh, hi Shahnaz! Don’t worry, I’ve turned off all my sweet Kotik’s senses except for the sense of touch, so he should be almost completely unaware that you are here. Well...Almost. He probably can pick up your emotions.” Lord Baldric said all this with a cheeky grin on his face as he pounded away into Kotik’s rear hole.

Exhibitionism was one of her Master’s more annoying aspects, even if it can be quite funny at times depending on what exactly he is doing. The Tiefling had been with her master since they were both very young, and she had seen the already shameless youth who cared not who saw him naked as he darted through the halls to the equally shameless Lord Baldric who would gladly have sex anywhere he pleased if his Father didn’t set some basic ground rules on the estate.

Kotik meanwhile was in a frightening yet amazing state of what Baldric called “sensory deprivation.” Where he would use his illusory abilities to prevent Kotik from feeling one or more of his senses, like sight or hearing. Right now the only connection the Lynxian had to the outside world was the feel of his Master’s warm body over him and that cock that was slamming in and out of him in all the right ways. The lack of sensory input like smell, taste, sight, hearing, was absolutely nerve racking and heart pounding to the Lynxian. He clung to Baldric like a lifeline, embracing the only connection to the outside world he had riding the wave of panic and arousal that seemed to hit him simultaneously.

His Lynxian ears twitched and swiveled towards Shahnaz as he was in this state of bliss and sensory deprivation, though he did not know it was her. He could tell there was someone else in the room, who was feeling something like a blend of amusement and annoyance with what was happening. Baldric felt satisfied and exhilarated in his own way when that someone had appeared. Kotik felt mild alarm for the briefest of moments being in the middle of lovemaking with Baldric and having someone else see him, but it was a fleeting thought as he felt himself get closer and closer to climaxing for yet another time that morning.

Though Kotik was not aware of this, normally a lad would have to wait awhile before he was ready to climax and ejaculate after already doing so. However his lover who had dominion over water and had spent a lot of time devising perverted methods to use it found ways to circumvent that down period. Kotik, who had only ever known sex with Baldric or around Baldric, had only ever experienced the feeling of being able to cum in rapid succession so many times that it prevented him from forming a coherent thought, or being prevented from cumming till it came out in such a powerful burst that it knocked him unconscious from how overwhelming it was.

Kotik would realize who had come in to see him getting his rear so thoroughly pounded when he finally was given his senses back and saw that Breakfast had arrived for them. Breakfast that Lord Baldric only ordered in person from Shahnaz.

Baldric actually fell off the bed in a fit of sputtering giggles as he watched his sweet Kotik’s face flush ever deeper shades of red looking at the breakfast. The perfectly hilarious look of dawning realization of what had happened grew so clearly on the ever more mortified Lynxians features that it was just too much for the Young Lord to handle as he cackled on the floor. The embarrassed and grumpy Kotik looked at Lord Baldric laughing giddily down on the floor with puffed out and reddened cheeks, and he proceeded to pelt the older teen with any pillows within immediate grabbing distance. That only made the bluish white haired lad laugh even harder, gripping his stomach as he gasped for air between his fits of laughter and trying to shield himself from the pillow barrage from above him.

When the two of them had got to Lord Baldric’s lair after they had finally eaten breakfast, Kotik made a point of deeply bowing from the waist in apology to Shahnaz, even as it stretched his leash a bit tight in his master’s grasp as he did so. Shahnaz waved him off and told him to rise.

“Sweetie,” The Pink Tiefling said with some amusement in her voice as her black and gold eyes looked at Kotik with a twinkle of fondness within them. “You have nothing whatsoever to apologize for. Your Master’s just a big ol perv that’s all there is to it.” Kotik had to giggle in agreement at that, and Lord Baldric’s shameless expression said he had nothing to correct in her assertion. “I’ve known this scamp since we were both youngsters and trust me, there was nothing going on in there that I haven’t seen Lord Baldric doing far too many times than I care to admit. Hell the whole reason he HAS a dedicated Harem chamber is because Duke Bertolde was tired of walking in on stuff he did NOT want to see.”

“Lord Baldric!” Kotik said with some shock and admonishment in his cracking voice as he looked up at the older teen at the implications of what Shahnaz had just said. That said teen was now whistling through a barely contained smirk and looking away from the conversation like he had spotted something more interesting in the distance. Shahnaz gave Kotik a look that perfectly conveyed the expression ‘you see what I’ve been dealing with?’ as she gestured to her master. Without saying another word Shahnaz and the other maid on duty opened up the Lair to the two lads, revealing the world of steam and heat behind those Icey Doors.

It was not long before Kotik found himself inside of the classroom within Baldric’s Lair, taking a seat in one of the many desks that lined up in neat rows towards the front of the class where the blackboard was. By the time Lord Baldric had made his way down the rows of desks and chairs, his mirth from earlier was expertly replaced with the stoic visage that was Professor Baldric.

Once again, He took rollcall, making sure to stretch the moment out as long as possible to tease the Lynxian. Kotik noted with some amusement that Baldric sure seemed to be in a playful mood that morning. The lynxian played along and said he was here when his name was called, enjoying the role-play of being in a classroom with Professor Baldric.

There was something rather alluring about Baldric when he took on his professor’s persona. He felt older, more mature, and it just felt naughtier to do things with him for some inexplicable reason when Baldric was acting like that. Kotik had never even considered something like the word naughty being fun before he met Baldric, but it was the only word to describe the feeling he got towards his master when he took on that teacher’s voice and posture.

“Welcome class, to Magic 102: What the hell are Magic Items anyway, and why can’t Kotik find any wood on Lord Baldric’s Estate?”

Just like last time, the words appeared on the Blackboard as he spoke them, and caused the Lynxian’s face to light up with some embarrassment at the last part of the class title.

The cat boy had indeed been rather frustrated with not being able to find a single speck of wood on the interior of the estate lately. He had wanted to do some practicing with wood to make small magic items to impress his master when he finally did start teaching him how to do so. Yet he couldn’t find so much as a splinter looking around the Estate. The closest he had come was when he had fought outside in the Gardens with Count Raudh, but even there he didn’t spot any trees to speak of. A whole lot of different types of flowers and plants, but no trees.

The fact that Lord Baldric chose to point out that he knew about his little scavenger hunts for wood inside the Estate made it quite clear that the fact he couldn’t find any to work with was quite deliberate and intentional.

“Yes Kotik, I’m quite aware you wanted to get some extra credit on your studies by skipping ahead in the lesson plan.” Professor Baldric intoned as he waltzed with authority in every step in front of the class, “However I’ve made sure you do not have access to your preferred materials for very specific reasons.”

He flicked his wand towards his student and called on him. “Student Kotik, what are some reasons I might not want you to skip ahead and start experimenting on your own with Magic items? Feel free to cite the previous class and what you’ve learned so far.”

Kotik settled into his desk and thought about the question he was asked. It didn’t take him long to find an answer.

“Well, in the last class we talked about Attunement items, and how it’s dangerous if you break them while you’re in an agreement with the item. So maybe you didn’t want me to accidentally break a magic item?”

“And why wouldn’t I want you to do that Kotik, do you remember the reason why breaking an attuned Item is bad?”

Kotik nodded up and down, his tail swishing with interest as the class really started to get underway. “You said that if it breaks, the Magic item will damage your attunements, and maybe even your soul if you really mess up with it.”

“So student Kotik, based on that information, what would be one thing we want to go over before I let you make magic items?”

Kotik thought before recalling some of the words from the previous lesson. “We’d want to go over how to make the item difficult to break, or difficult to spot as being a magic item, or both if I can manage it.”

“Fantastic!” Lord Baldric beamed, “Yes, that is one big reason why you can’t find any wood you can easily access at the moment Kotik. Cause I do not want you to run into getting Exhaustion cursed by accident. Trust me on this Kotik, it’s a lot easier to mess up making a magic item than you might think.”

Lord Baldric waved his hand and called forth a ball of water from the air around him from within his Lair. Kotik watched intently as he shifted that ball seamlessly from Ice to steam to liquid, cycling through the phases with ease.

“Now, I know I give off the impression that my dominion over water gives me seemingly restriction-less powers,” Professor Baldric intoned as he looked at his Lynxian while continuing to cycle the orb of water through the various states, “but in actuality being a True Dominion of Water is an incredibly difficult thing to master, especially when it comes to making magic items. Would you want to take a guess as to why that is Student Kotik?”

Kotik looked perplexed as he stared at the orb of water shifting through the states. Then as he kept focusing he noticed something odd about the orb. Or rather something that was missing. Kotik’s lynxian ears could not pick up that it was a magic item, which meant that it wasn’t a magic item yet. Lord Baldric was manipulating the water, but he hadn’t turned it into a Magic item yet.

Then he looked into the distance as he thought, and his eyes caught sight of the walls of steam that sealed off the room. Those were sentient magic items, and he had never seen Baldric try to make them anything other than Steam.

Kotik had a jolt of excitement in his features as he bounced in his chair. He had suddenly realized with a shiver of joy filled discovery why Baldric was cycling that orb in front of him.

“Does changing one of your magic items to a different state of water break them?!” Kotik asked with excitement and shock in his voice. Lord Baldric beamed with pride at his Brilliant little Lynxian as he pointed to him with his wand.

“BINGO! Once I craft a magic item, I have to keep it in the state I made it in or it is considered broken. If I make a water magic item, it needs to stay as water. If I make an ice magic item, it needs to stay as ice. If I make a vapor magic item, it needs to stay as vapor. Once it shifts into a different state of water, the enchantment is undone and the item is considered broken. If I’m attuned to such an item when that happens, that is an immediate strike against my attunement slots, which means it’s distressingly easy for me to get Exhaustion cursed if I’m careless. I speak from a few harsh experiences on that front.”

Kotik excitedly pointed to the steam walls surrounding them. “That's why you keep this place so hot and full of steam! Cause it keeps the vapor assistants from breaking right?! Wow!”

“It is certainly one of the reasons yes!” Professor Baldric said with pride at how his adorably excited Kotik had figured that out. “Which is why I try my best to not be attuned to my items if at all possible. It is very easy to break my magic items by accident, far more so than usual with MageCrafting. I use my training as an Arch Magician and Showman for the Bavaram Circus as well as other strategies like my lovely Assistants to conceal these Drawbacks from my opponents. In truth, even my assistants can be quite fragile if I do not set the stage properly for them.”

“Wood can be Just as finicky in some ways." Professor Baldric added, "If you are careless and make the magic item you’ve created too flammable for example, they can exploit that and easily get you into a compromised state if you were attuned to that item. If you make a paper magic item and attune to it, then tear it, that will result in that page being considered broken as well. When creating a magic item, especially an attuned one, you have to treat that item with care lest you have problems in the heat of battle.”

Professor Baldric put that point on the blackboard before he continued.

“Now Kotik, during our last class, I showed you an illusion of Babica Preja.”

Kotik shuddered, remembering the horrifyingly creepy hag giant. His shudder only deepened when he remembered her patchwork cloak of living wolf-like creatures. Creatures that were once human before she captured them and broke their minds with her MageCrafting. She then went on to fuse their bodies together into one perverse superstructure of fur covered flesh, thrumming heart beats, blood vessels, and lungs haggardly breathing with countless canine nostrils to keep itself alive as her Magic item of a Cloak.
“
“During that illusion, Babica and I were discussing something being banned. Do you recall what that was?”

Kotik scrunched his face in thought, trying to push through the skin crawling feeling the creepy grandmotherly voiced monster made him feel and recall what she and his master had talked about in her home.

“I don’t remember the word exactly, but I think it had something to do with undead.” Kotik had a flash of recollection grow across his face as he snapped his fingers. “Necromancy, that’s the word. She said Necromancy was banned. She also talked about something called a Lich being annoying, but I think I recall some of the scarier bard stories talking about Liches and they described them as horrifying enemies of the gods themselves.”

“Babica has a very skewed perception of history given her past. She is one of the few remaining Elder beings from the Dark Ages, and she recalls that time like an old woman would remember the good old days on her porch while baking cookies for the grandkids. She is where creatures like Werebeasts, Ogres, and other unnatural living creatures not made by the gods come from. Babica is also one of the few living beings left on the surface world with twelve attunement slots to her name.”

“TWELVE?!” Kotik said, taken aback, “I thought every magic user has three!?”

“Babica and other beings of similar age were born before that change took place. Everyone that was born going forward after that change was restricted to three after that. Babica will be one of the last beings in this realm to ever get that many attunements through a MageCrafter title. After her and the other Elder beings die off, none like those beings will replace them.”

Lord Baldric stopped pacing and turned to Kotik.

“I also doubt anyone else will be granted Babica’s particular MageCrafting Dominion after her, considering how she’s used it her whole life. It’s very much related to both Necromancy, and why I’m holding off on letting you work with wood just yet. For here is the second law of magic.”

Lord Baldric rapped the blackboard with his wand as the words scrawled onto its surface:

“Magic Law Number Two: Your magic, titles, and privileges are vested to you by Gods and Goddesses, and malicious abuse of these vested powers which threaten the integrity of this realm can and will have consequences should the abuse be grievous enough to warrant it. Take great care in deciding what magic items you wish to create, and consider the consequences of making such items. You are acting as a representative of gods and goddesses, not just making them for yourself.”

He turned to Kotik and wrapped his wand against his hand. “Now Kotik, What do you know about Necromancy?”

“Isn’t that the dark magic that people used to make armies of the undead that the heroes of old fought to defeat? Those are some of the more popular Bardic Songs in the Old Man’s Tavern.”

“That is part of why it was banned, but in truth that is not what Necromancy is supposed to be.”

Kotik looked at Baldric in confusion. “I’ve only ever heard of that magic in stories about undead armies though? What else could it be used for?”

“Well Kotik, let me put it like this; When you talked with my Butler Sargis, you told him things you learned you could do with the wood in that Cart. What were those things you could do?”

“Um,” Kotik thought back to when he had Met Sargis and told him about what happened in the cart, which felt almost like a lifetime ago now. “I said I could make the wood like new, I could rot it from the inside out, I knew what the cart was made of and where it came from, and I even knew who worked on the cart.”

“Normally a MageCrafter could only do such things with rigorous training of course, but thanks to your Lynxian ears you have a great advantage over the usual Magecrafter. However, that is not why I had you recall that.” He pointed at Kotik, “Now imagine those things you just described, but instead of talking about wood you were talking about a Dead Body.”

Kotik’s face scrunched up at that. “Magecrafters of dead bodies could make a body like new?" Professor Baldric nodded and gestured for Kotik to continue. "Rot it from the inside out? Figure out where the body was planted," Kotik had a flash of understanding as he corrected himself, "No, figure out who gave birth to the body in life, and what killed the body, and you’d gain information on who interacted with the body? Is that right?”

Lord Baldric nodded. “Did you know that back before the Dark Ages, Important people could be brought back from the dead within some of the temples with Resurrection magic? Resurrection magic is technically speaking from the school of Necromancy. Which is why you can no longer bring people back from the dead in this realm.”

“Wait, resurrection magic was real?!” Kotik exclaimed in surprise, “I thought those were just ways Bards like to embellish stories about the heroes of old! You mean to tell me that kind of magic was a real thing at one point?”

“The school still exists, Kotik. it’s just banned from this realm of existence.” Lord Baldric said in a somewhat serious tone.

“As is the ability to contact the afterlife and speak with the spirits of loved ones. Or speak with the spirit of a murder victim to figure out who their killer was. Or just contact a spirit at all.” His tone shifted further into a more serious bent, which made Kotik stare at him with ever widening eyes.

“As is the ability to astral project yourself into the spirit realm and commune with spirits there.” His tone grew even more serious, communicating the gravity of the situation with the next words.

“As is the ability to receive and send messages with the Greater Pantheon through those spirits.”

Kotik’s eyes widened in alarm at that last one. That sounded really bad!

“Wait we can’t communicate directly with the Gods anymore?!” Kotik asked in a baffled tone of voice as he processed what he was hearing.

Lord Baldric nodded gravely. “Not for the past two thousand years Student Kotik. Not since The Dark Age Wars, where the Heroes of Old valiantly fought against the forces of the undead on the surface world. Yet things still got so out of hand within this realm of existence that it caused the gods to cast a slim majority vote from the Greater Pantheon that stripped our entire realm of that school of magic. Both from its positive and negative qualities.”

Kotik’s mind was reeling from that information. What were the temples even doing then? Didn’t they claim to be in communication with their gods? Then the illusion from the night before played in Kotik’s mind, the Illusion of the King of Triton, King Morcant, who told the child Baldric that his task was going to be daunting because he couldn’t communicate directly with the gods to find out what his mission was, and that he needed a Lair to meditate in to even figure it out.

“How are we supposed to know we are even doing our job right if we can’t talk to the Gods giving us the mission Lord Baldric?!” Kotik asked with some alarm in his voice.

Lord Baldric leaned against his Teachers desk and pointed at Kotik with his wand. “That right there is why I made a Lair faster than anyone in recorded history, cause in case you forgot my illusion last night, I had some pretty compelling incentives to do so thanks to a certain massive tentacled Giant King from beneath Muirenn’s Sea.”

He grinned sheepishly at Kotik, looking somewhat guilty and ashamed. “That is also why King Morcant was so offended with my choice of disguise when I was a vigilante. Cause if you recall, The Faceless Wight is a disguise mimicking an undead, and they are…”

“... the reason King Morcant hasn’t been able to speak with his Goddess he has so much loyalty for in the last two thousand years.” Kotik finished Lord Baldric’s words, quaking in his seat at the dawning realization. No wonder that giant was so upset with Baldric and looked like he wanted to smite him on the spot! The person that was chosen to be Emperor of the Seas was running around at the time dressed up as the very thing that caused the Gods to take away the kings ability to speak with his Goddess directly!

“Yeah. Like I said, the biggest blunder of my life in more ways than one.” Lord Baldric said with a visible cringe. An expression that told Kotik that that one illusion probably wasn’t the only scolding Lord Baldric had received from the Tentacled Giant over his vigilante failures.

“My relationship with King Morcant has improved since then,” he paused and waved his hand in an uneasy way, “relatively speaking. I’ll put it like this: He doesn’t look like he actively wants to flatten me between his thumb and forefinger anymore. Which, honestly, is a win in my book all things considered.”

Kotik let out a nervous half hearted laugh at that quip, partially because he found it actually funny in a dark way and partly because he saw that Giant’s expression in the illusion and knew he would have actually done so if given the go ahead at any point by his Goddess.

“Speaking of King Morcant, he actually spoke to what Magic Items really are during that illusion. Do you recall the word he used for it? He specifically stated it that he ‘doles them out accordingly.’ “

Kotik remembered that line, and he leaned into the desk with his elbows firmly on the table as he tried to think of the word he had used. “It started with an R I remember that, and it kinda sounded like Royal or Regal.” A spark of the memory came back to him, “Regalia! that’s the word he said, though I have no idea what that means.”

“You’ve seen non magical regalia before actually.” Lord Baldric said with a smirk. “It’s any symbolic item that represents the authority vested into it and the people who own it. Royal Crowns, Crests like my family symbol of Duke Bertolde, Scepters held by kings and queens, any item that conveys and symbolizes the power and authority of the one appointed to carry such items.”

“Wait…,” Kotik looked up at Lord Baldric with recognition growing on his expression. “Why does that sound like what Magic Items do for Magic Users and MageCrafters?”

“That’s because Kotik, Magic Items are Regalia. They are one in the same. They are Regalia from the Greater Pantheon, and MageCrafters, or the Vicars of Deities, are the individuals vested with the power to make that Regalia that represents that deity’s power upon this world. Or in our cases,” He looked Kotik straight in the eyes, making his tone gravely serious, “Our Magic items are Regalia representing the authority of our respective Sub Pantheons upon this realm. So when I say I want to make sure you know what you are doing when you are making your magic items, I’m not just talking about Attunments here.”

Kotik looked shell shocked at that. Suddenly the very idea of crafting magic items from wood sounded like such an important and awe inspiring thing that he was almost terrified to touch wood now.

“Now, that’s not to say you cannot make items for personal use. We have rights and privileges as MageCrafters to use our abilities with quite a bit of leeway. The Gods above know I’ve enjoyed such leeway to the fullest. However a good rule of thumb is this; If you are going to be using an attunement slot or it is going to be used for anything other than private personal activities that have nothing to do with the greater mission, gravely consider the consequences of making such items and how it reflects on your Pantheon. For each one of them, especially when they gain sentience, are Regalia which have implicit vested authority from our Sub Pantheons.”

Professor Baldric took center stage and put his hands behind his back now as he prepared the next part of the lecture.

“Now, Student Kotik, We’ve touched on the idea that the collaring of all Magic Users and MageCrafters by the Kingdom of Silbel is a bad thing up till this point, and we have our own personal reasons as to why we would have such a problem with how this country is being run in that respect. However I would like to pose you a question,”

Lord Baldric’s eyes locked onto Kotik’s as he spoke these next words with a very serious look on his face. “Why do you think some of the Pantheons would specifically be upset about this? I will give you a hint, it’s related to what we’ve talked about so far.”

Kotik looked perplexed. “I assumed they were upset for the same reasons we are. Is that not the case?”

“It’s more complicated than just sharing our views, student Kotik. Let me ask this in a different way. What exactly do you know about the Dark Age Wars?”

“I know the heroes of Old fought against undead legions from various Magic Users who turned against the gods and sought to take over the world. At least that’s how the Bards tell it.”

Lord Baldric made a gesture and the world went black around them. “Please note Kotik, that the following illusions are based on second hand accounts. I had to mold and shape them per the direction of various Sea Elves who were present at the time, and had their stories corroborated with various Merfolk and citizens of Triton who were also alive during that time. As such this isn’t going to be a one hundred percent accurate representation, but it is the best I can create with the corroborating stories and their own inputs on how the illusions should look.”

Suddenly, Kotik was seated in his desk floating above what looked like the very end of the world itself.

His eyes dilated in horror at the absolute sea of Sprinting, shrieking corpses of the undead that were bombarding across the land, and were being met by what he recognized was an equally massive army of Werewolves and Warlocks in pitched combat, the latter forces of which were spilling out in droves from a massive Bog. In the Middle of the sea of werewolves and warlocks that were spilling out of the bog like a tidal wave was a youthful looking giant female. A giant female who was cackling in delight at the war going on around her with a crazed look in her eyes. A woman well over sixty feet tall and wearing a breathing cloak that could easily pass for a woman in her late twenties or early thirties.

Kotik recoiled and leaped out of his chair into the arms of Lord Baldric as the cloak of the woman he recognized as the much younger Babica Preja began to morph on her body and meld onto her flesh. It sounded like it was shrieking in agony as it melded and morphed around her until it turned her into a towering version of her werewolf legions. A towering werewolf giant that had that same crazed look of bloodlust and glee she had on her face before her cloak changed. Babica Preja let out a booming howl of joy, shaking the ground with the sound of her voice as she threw her head back in rapture into the blood tinged sky. All this before cackling like a mad woman and rushing at alarming speeds into the sea of rapidly sprinting throngs of undead shrieking towards her. From the way she looked, listening to the zombie legions blood curdling voices ripping through the air, you might have assumed she was listening to the most beautiful, glorious symphony she had ever heard. Her werewolf second skin of her sewn together wolf creations, which were once people, erupted with tentacle-like appendages from all parts of her body. Each one of these slicked and slobbering appendages resembled tongues that writhed menacingly around her. Those tongue like appendages that whipped about, raining saliva onto her minions, suddenly grew out rows of menacing teeth along their edges. Those teeth began to rotate at alarming speeds as the length of each tongue stretched out further and further out various parts of her skin crawling wolf body. Kotik stared down in horror as those legions of undead and even some of her own wolf minions were utterly cleaved to pieces as those chainsaw like tongues lashed out viciously towards the charging enemy forces. Blood and viscera splattered out visibly across the battlefield with each swipe even from how high up Kotik and Baldric were. Her face looked like she was experiencing the most rapturous orgasm in her entire life cleaving through the enemies before her.

“WHAT A LOVELY DAY DEARIES,” Her warped voice ripped through the open sky through her crazed looking wolf face that she had now. Her voice felt like it was far too close for comfort as it dripped with blood-lust and joy.

“ FIND ME SOME LIVING THINGS TO CRAFT. THERE’S GOT TO BE SOMETHING HIDDEN AMONG ALL THESE ZOMBIES.” her growling distorted voice sounded so enraptured, so excited, “WE COULD ALWAYS USE MORE WOLVES OUT HERE.” She cackled with pure menacing glee as she bounded in her Giant Werewolf form, cleaving through armies as her Warlocks, werewolves, and other abominations followed behind her.

“You see Kotik,” Baldric said as he pulled the two of them back, revealing the true horror that had been the Dark Age Wars, “While it is true that the heroes of old fought against the Legions of Undead. In truth, it was more like all these warlords rose up using their MageCrafting to create legions to fight each other for power. Almost all of them, save for Babica Preja, were Necromancers to one degree or another.”

He pointed out to representations of vampiric armies flooding the skys and the ground, Liches and their undead minions spilling out of their own fortresses, and the various cities and countries who had long since been overrun with the chaotic bloodlust that had flooded the surface world at that time.

“The surface world was completely overrun at the time. Governments and order were all but collapsed. So much knowledge from before the Dark Age Wars were utterly lost after this bloody time in our past. I also want to point out to you Kotik, that most of these forces were under the command of a very few MageCrafters. I do believe there were only about six actual heads of these various armies vying for power.”

His illusion came to each head of the armies in turn. One a pompous looking colorless vampire with glowing red eyes and large fangs who had his legions of thralls feasting on innocent villages and cities, only to turn them into more of their kind. Others were various Liches who each had their own brands of undead, some preferring ghosts, others preferring zombies.

The world looked like it had gone utterly mad.

“One of the ways these various warlords got as indisputably powerful as they did was they would take the bodies of MageCrafters and Magic Users and turn them into their own minions, turning the powers that had been vested unto them by the gods into their own power to wield through their reanimated corpse. They took the authority of the gods and utterly perverted it for their own ends, subjugating entire armies of magic users and MageCrafters as their undead slaves. Babica was the only exception in that she was creating living creatures, but that was the only difference. Instead of wielding their corpses, she broke the minds of the living people she changed and turned them into her minions all the same. She wasn’t better than the Necromancers, she was just using a different method than they were. Which is why, when the banning of Necromancy happened…”

Suddenly the legions of undead, vampires, liches, ghosts, and everything in between began to crumble and turn to dust or wisps of smoke. The only thing that was left standing were the dwindled forces of Babica Preja, who looked actually mildly annoyed that she didn’t have any armies to play with anymore as she turned around and stepped back into her bog that she came from.

“... She was the only main warlord at the time that was left standing. After that point, the surface world was left to pick up the pieces of that bloody and violent period of our past. Much information was lost, and the knowledge of things like where Magic Users and MageCrafters even are faded out of memory on the surface world. There was no way to contact the gods and goddesses to reclaim what they had lost. Only the Undersea kingdoms had been largely unaffected by what happened on the surface world.”

With a wave of Lord Baldric’s hand, time rapidly shifted as the sun darted across the sky at blinding speeds, night and day existing in mere blinks of an eye until the world of their current day came into view.

“Now we have the Kingdom of Silbel, who has begun to mirror, if only in a small part, what the warlords of the past did so long ago. Instead of it being an undead legion, they have put slave collars on the Magic Users and MageCrafters of their country, the people that are supposed to be the authority and representatives of the gods on this world.”

He looked at the little lynxian in his arms. “You see Kotik, if Silbel should decide that it wants to turn the centralized and very stolen power from the gods they have to the outside world, the Greater Pantheon may see that as a repeat of the Dark Age Wars. Except this time, we wouldn’t have a single school of Magic to scapegoat. If we fail to usurp Silbel and dismantle what they are doing before they get greedy and start a world war, we may look at a situation where the Greater Pantheon may have no choice but to intervene in a much harsher way than they did before.”

He looked at Kotik with a gravely serious expression. “I may have started my mission because of a starving Tiefling girl, but what we are truly looking at Kotik is either we restore the order of the gods on the surface world, or the gods will do it for us.” Lord Baldric made that sound like a very bad idea.

“We do not want to be in the situation where the gods will end up doing it, because if they do, they may just cut off magic from this realm entirely in the best case scenario, if not consider this realm of existence a lost cause all together.”

Kotik was staring at Lord Baldric with wide eyes and a slack jaw.

“Yeah, there’s a reason I’ve been avoiding this particular big reveal.” Lord Baldric said gravely as he ended the illusion. “So far, Silbel hasn’t made any overt moves towards war, so we still have time before they trigger such a dire situation. However I want to make sure we are doing things properly. Like I told you before, we do not want to engage Silbel in war, that is where they are strongest and where it would basically be suicide. What I deceptively left out of course was the added problems of it possibly triggering a pantheon driven armageddon should they see the situation as dire as the Dark Age Wars of so long ago.”

“But, but Lord Baldric.” Kotik was clutching onto his master and trembling in his arms. “How are we supposed to do that if we don’t even know what the gods want us to do?! If we mess this up the King of Triton said they could just take our MageCrafting away from us and then we’d only be able to just watch that horrible thing happen all over again!”

Lord Baldric kissed Kotik, and he kept the boy locked in that kiss until his trembling body relaxed and he started to calm down from his excited nerves. Once he was absolutely certain his little Lynxian had settled himself down he plopped him onto his teacher’s desk and looked him in the eyes.

“I have found a small way of Communicating with the gods believe it or not, though it is rather unreliable.”

“You have?! How?!” Kotik looked in awe at his master at him being able to figure out anyway at all to make something good out of this increasingly daunting situation.

“If you recall, during our first lesson I described that the gods like to interact with their worshipers in various ways. Some like to have highly zealous followers, while others have magic users like Wizards who don’t need to be quite so reverent.”

Kotik nodded. “Yeah I remember that. Then you said the gods of Dreams and Illusions like to play with their followers visions and dreams...wait. WAIT!” Kotik looked up at Baldric who was now beaming a triumphant expression.

“Yes my sweet Kotik. The realms of Dreams and visions are not under the dominion of Necromancy, but under Illusions, which I am still a Subject of as an Illusory Wizard.” He beamed down at the Lynxian, “My illusory powers couple exceedingly well with my MageCrafter Dominion of Water, as a lot of illusion work with Magicians is quite literally just smoke and mirrors. I can employ much the same principles to a far more effective degree through my manipulations of illusions and my true dominion over water.”

He sat down on the teachers desk next to Kotik. “For the past few years, I have been trying to wrap my head around one cryptic, symbolic, utterly baffling vision from the Realms of illusion after another, trying to parcel out what the will of the gods might be. A lot of what I’ve been seeing in these visions only make sense after it happens in the real world. None of which holds more true than the person sitting right beside me.”

“You mean, you’ve seen me in dreams and stuff like that?”

“Not you exactly, symbolic representations of you. Symbolic representations of aspects of your life that only make sense after I learn more about you. Everything you’ve revealed about yourself to me filled in the missing puzzle pieces in those strange and abstract visions and gave me so much clarity that it was beyond intriguing to experience. It solidified my belief that I had actually made a connection with at least some part of the greater pantheon, even if it is a baffling and not readily understandable connection.”

He reached out and scratched Kotik behind his lynxian ears, “However, I think we might get far more solid answers once we actually construct your Lair, because you are uniquely equipped to glean information out of magic items that I am far from learning how to do myself yet. I have a general plan of action on how we should handle Silbel should we need to act before your Lair is finished, but considering my track record as the Faceless Wight, I want to make sure we do everything we can to understand our mission objectives in full. You my sweet Kotik are so perfectly suited for that It is rather alarming, for it makes my ability to plan look like child's play if the Pantheon of Water and Wood have been making moves like this.”

Kotik stared down at the floor as he spoke in an overwhelmed tone of voice. “I think my brain needs a moment to process all this Lord Baldric. This class was a whole lot more intense than the last one.”

Baldric laughed. “Imagine how I’ve felt! I’ve been trying to figure all this stuff out on my own for years with a Giant Tentacled King breathing down my neck! You have no idea how happy I am to have help now. Now let’s go get something to eat and stretch our legs so you can stew all that in that brilliant head of yours.”