Spirit of Vengeance - 1. Ch 01: The Mages of Malden

CHAPTER 1: The Mages of Malden

Something was up and it certainly wasn’t me. I was having a very pleasant time lounging around in bed savouring the rest from training when my roommate came barging into the small room we shared in Malden’s Academy. Most people really wouldn’t consider it a room as much as a small cave carved out into the rock. The walls were uneven and had a shape somewhere between rectangular and oval. However, it didn’t stand out unusually with the rest of the Academy since the rest of the building (and even surrounding buildings) were made from the same uneven stone.

My friend Lance was hurriedly going through the chest at the foot of his bed which held most of his things. We had been “friends” for a few months more out of necessity than anything else. He was a few years older than me, yet somehow ended up with me as his roommate. We shared no common interests and came from distinctly different backgrounds (I was the son of a farmer in the Free Lands and he was the son of a wealthy merchant in one of the cities of the Coalition of Mages).

No matter what though, putting two students in the same room for a few months was bound to end up in some kind of friendship even if it was not the closest kind.

“What are you doing?” I asked him somewhat groggily. “We don’t have training today, do we?”

“No,” he replied in a slightly annoyed tone which made me pay closer attention to him. His medium-length blonde hair was raised all over the place which gave off the impression that he’d fallen from the sky.

“Okay…” I said slowly as I leaned on my side to look at him. When he continued to say nothing as if he was alone in the room, I continued, “What are you looking for?”

“Have you seen my practice sword?” he asked with a glare that made it look like he was accusing me of stealing it. “Master Archer wants all the trainees in the courtyard immediately.”

“What?” I asked as I sat bolt upright. “And you didn’t think to mention this to me first?”

“What?” he asked in return and looked at me. “Oh, yeah, sorry.” He said, not sounding sorry at all.

Have I mentioned we weren’t the closest of friends?

I quickly got up to change, not even bothering to bathe. At some point, Lance found his practice sword (at least the hilt which I knew would extend to a blunt steel blade when used), he did not bother saying goodbye as he left me there finding the cleanest looking set of robes I could find. When I was finally fully dressed, I hurried out only to run back in to find my own weapon, a quarterstaff enchanted by magic to shrink to a length roughly equal to two hands.

I was a novice at using that weapon and to be honest, it often felt awkward in my hands. I’m not entirely inept at using weapons. However, I was used to a sword or a mace as was taught to me by my father (who in turn was taught by his father). You might be asking why a farmer’s son (or for that matter, his father) would need to learn weapons training. The answer is a long story but in summary, it’s because of a history of Water Magic in our family.

The world we knew was split into many, many groups and subgroups. A war had broken out several centuries ago where a Demon Lord had risen in power and caused untold deaths among the human populations as all forms of creatures ravaged across the known territories. We, that is to say mages, eventually won that war but ever since then there was a growing resentment between mages and non-mages. With peace and time, non-mages eventually split off into their own territories developing and nurturing a growing fear and hatred of anyone capable of wielding magic.

They settled in the Northern and Southern Territories where they began rebuilding a world without magic, basing everything solely on technology, a half-forgotten science that was mostly lost when magic first entered the world. Most of the mage communities to date exist in the center of these two separate kingdoms. There are seven independent mage cities that are part of a Coalition of Mages. In between those cities are the Free Lands which are not governed by any particular city and are instead cared for by the people that live in them in smaller communities.

I came from such a community and as such was not used to the confining feel of the city I was in, even if I had already been there for several years. The time I’ve spent in the Academy did, however, allow me to become intimately familiar with the many corridors and passageways that were carved into the rock I’ve come to know as my second home. As such, I did not take the path common to most as I left my room heading towards the courtyard. Instead, I passed through a series of long but empty paths that would lead me through one of the many back entrances where I hoped I could enter unnoticed. It was hard enough to be the nephew of one of the strictest masters in the school without having to give him another reason to scold me.

Almost as if he was thinking about my being late, I heard his voice as I took the supposedly empty corridor. I paused, waiting for the inevitable reprimand but then realized that his words were not directed to me.

“What is it exactly you are doing here?” his stern voice came from the path ahead. He was at the top of the stairs I was taking that would lead to one last corridor which opened into the courtyard. His back was turned to me and I could see him talking to a much older mage, probably decades older than he was judging from the long silver and white hair. “You know well enough that the methods of Water and Earth are entirely different.”

“Yes, of course,” the older mage said with a chuckle. “I have just come to inform the Lady that Adam is now safely living in Arantiva. He will begin his formal mage training immediately.”

“Adam?” my uncle asked with a note of uncertainty. My uncle was a tall, muscular man in his mid-thirties and always gave of a commanding presence that can get people to follow him. He had a strength about him like a tidal wave heading towards the shore. Somehow though, his strength felt dwarfed compared to the older and much more frailer-looking mage who radiated a different but definitely more powerful magical aura than my uncle did. “Is that your nephew? I still don’t understand why it was necessary to send him off to live with non-mages. You risk his life unnecessarily all over a prophecy as unpredictable as the humans.”

The older gentleman frowned. “I don’t understand why people insist on using humans to refer solely to the non-mage population. We are human also, you know.”

“You are avoiding the topic,” my uncle replied.

The older man sighed. “Very well. We did not do it because of the prophecy. Even now, I do not know if Adam is one of the mages of the prophecy. I very much hope that he isn’t but I have a strong feeling that my hopes will be extinguished in that regard. I do not wish that kind of burden on anyone, especially him. The decision to let him live away from mages was a necessary one. There was a growing resentment among the council members. His arrival had caused strife within our Circle. We hoped sincerely that the Spirit of Earth would not find out his presence until he was much older.”

“And yet he found out anyway,” my uncle said with a frown. “I’m surprised he did not crush the boy as you thought.” There was a somber look in the older gentleman’s face that gave pause to my uncle’s words. “Is there still no word from him?”

“No,” the man said with a heavy sigh. “He remains silent still. The Spirit of Earth is proud to be sure. I assume he did not like his followers withholding such a secret from him.”

My uncle scoffed and it surprised me to see him being agitated in any way by anyone like that. “Which is why we here take great care in doing The Lady’s will. We would not haphazardly risk angering someone so powerful. Such powerful spirits will find out eventually and withholding information from them is simply dangerous.”

“Really?” the older mage said. “So if she asked you to sacrifice someone you knew, a relation, perhaps say, your own nephew, you would not hesitate to give her his life?”

My uncle looked quickly at the older mage and for a moment I thought he would see me standing there at the bottom of the steps. However, he seemed far too distracted to notice me there. “She would not do that,” he said vehemently.

“But if she did?” the older man insisted.

“We are not having this conversation, Edward,” he told the older gentleman. “Truly, what are you doing here? You know you cannot dip your hands into our Circle. The Lady will not approve of it despite her affinity to the Spirit of Earth. Neither will she move the earth to find him. If you intend to take for yourself the one who will be Chosen from us, you will be sorely disappointed. The Lady will tell us in time without any intervention from any prophecy your people may or may not have foreseen. You know how unhappy she is with what your people have done. To push her would further estrange our already fragile arrangement.”

“Yes, I know that,” the man who was clearly Edward said. He still sounded amused despite the agitation he was causing my uncle. “However, you and I both know that the end is approaching very soon. We have perhaps a decade or less before the prophecies are fulfilled one way or another, whether you believe them or not. We did not lose Adam as you would insist. In many ways I think a greater power hid him from us when the custodian to whom we left him was killed. Someone was or still is after Adam. When his location was… revealed to me, I knew without a doubt that important things are coming to pass. Changes to our world are coming, my friend, and it has started with Adam’s coming. It stands to reason that your Chosen, as you call it, would already be here or would be arriving very soon lest they fall into hands of our enemies.”

“And what?” my uncle interrupted. “Do you just expect him to walk up to you and introduce himself?”

“Perhaps,” Edward said with a knowing smile.

“Samuel!” came a much sterner and dreaded voice that startled me, making me jump and almost lose balance on the steps I was standing on. “What are you doing here? All the trainees should be at the courtyard by now.”

“Mistress Gwen,” I said with an awkward bow. She was not as strict as my uncle but was known to expect the best from all her students. She did not demand perfection from each person as she knew we each had varying capabilities in magic. However, she expected that we give every task every effort we can muster. I could see her walking briskly towards me. She had a very kind face that did not properly represent her stern nature. And contrary to what it may sound like, Gwen was in fact her last name. “My apologies. I was on my way there just now.”

“Yet, you’ve been standing there, gawking like a fish,” Mistress Gwen said with a disapproving voice. Or it could have been her normal voice really since she always sounded like that. As she walked up the steps, she noticed the two men standing near the top. My uncle was frowning deeply at us and the other man, Edward, had a look in his eyes that could only be described as gleaming. “Masters, I apologize for my yelling. I did not realize you were nearby.”

“Nothing at all to apologize for, Katherine,” Edward replied with a smile and such familiarity that it was obvious the two were acquainted if not good friends. After all, he somehow knew her first name without introductions.

“Samuel,” my uncle said sternly as Mistress Gwen and I reached the top of the stairs together. He had a very suspicious look on his face that told me clearly that he knew why I had been standing there for quite some time. “You know better than to be late for a summons.”

“Yes, uncle,” I said with a less awkward bow than I gave Mistress Gwen. “I had arrived just now and paused unsure if it was wise to interrupt your conversation.”

“Or perhaps you did not want to be caught late, much less by your uncle?” Mistress Gwen suggested again in that disapproving voice.

“And who are you exactly, young man?” the man named Edward interrupted.

“I am Samuel Archer, master,” I said addressing the man. I did not know if he truly was a master but it was better safe than sorry. I had never seen him around the Academy or the city but it would be foolish to assume I knew everyone in Malden. I liked how he addressed me as young man though. Despite the fact that I was only fourteen, it was refreshing from being called a boy. “Most people call me Sam though. I am a trainee in this Academy and the nephew of the man to whom you were just speaking to.”

“Sam,” the older gentleman said as if he was testing the name. “Such a wonderful name. I have a friend named Sam. Keeps insisting I call him Samson. He’s quite a capable mage with a voice that could render a man deaf. Has a nasty habit of eating things with frogs in them though.” He frowned as though recalling an unpleasant memory.

“Oh…” I said caught off guard by what he was saying. “I… I don’t eat frogs.”

“I suppose that’s for the best,” he said smiling.

“May I ask who you are, master?” I said.

The older gentleman smiled wider like he was about to tell me some earth-shattering secret. “My name is Edward Aenhol.”

“Magister Edward Aenhol,” my uncle added. That surprised me. The use of magister instead of master suggested that the man was an outsider. “He is an old friend who has come to visit us for a day, perhaps longer.” He faced Mistress Gwen at the last few words and the implication of that act was obvious. She was to make sure that our guest would have the proper accommodations necessary.

“You seem taken aback,” Magister Aenhol said with an amused smile.

“It’s just that Magister is a title familiar to mages of the seven cities. I had thought that no one knew of this place other than those within our Circle.”

“There are some of us who must know,” Magister Aenhol said with a nod. “And some of us who just do.” He paused and it was clear that he would leave the interpretation of those words up to me.

“Perhaps it’s best that you join your fellow trainees,” my uncle said. However, he was staring at Magister Aenhol with suspicion in his eyes. The latter gentleman just smiled and nodded politely back at him.

“Yes, uncle,” I said with a hasty nod. I hurriedly move down the corridor, unable to believe my luck that I had escaped without being punished.

“Please see the stable master tonight after supper,” my uncle called at my back. My heart plummeted. Those words obviously meant I’d be cleaning horse muck yet again, a punishment he seemed to enjoy giving me.

I rushed out of the dormitories and to the courtyard. I looked up with fascination as I always did to the sky, the sky which seemed so near to us. The clouds hung low over Malden for we were near the peaks of several mountains that surrounded us on all sides.

Malden was hidden from the world at the top of a small mountain range. The mountains themselves were huge but were so close together they looked instead like one massive mountain. In between all those mountains sat plains, making a natural crevice where snow often melted down to the low lands, forming lakes and waterfalls everywhere.

“Stable boy is late,” Ernie said as I joined the other trainees standing by the entrance of the courtyard. Ernie (whose real name was Ernest) was a better friend than Lance and was the same form as me (forms were Malden’s version of the year levels common in Mage Academies in the Seven Cities). Despite the obvious insult in his words, I was grateful for them. He had been pushing for a month to call me stable boy, a nickname far nicer than I knew some of the other older trainees have been giving me. Every trainee has been sent to the stables as punishment for one reason or another so it was something we all shared. I just tended to be sent there more often because of my uncle.

Being the nephew of the strictest master in the Academy quickly earned me a bad reputation among my peers. Ernie was one of the few people that were considerably friendly despite my relation to my uncle. He was one of the few that properly understood that I was not responsible for the punishments my uncle would hand out left and right. Some trainees seemed to be under the impression that I was a snitch for him, asking my uncle to punish certain people for me. There was also a rumor that I was trying to align myself as the next Master of the Academy, a position currently held by my uncle and was considered the highest rank in the Academy. If it happened, it happened. But I wasn’t going to try particularly hard to replace my uncle or anything.

The rumors might also have been influenced by the fact that during one of my first earlier sessions, I was asked what I could do. I told them I could sense other people’s magical aura and could tell how strong or weak a mage was almost as if it was second nature to me. Many people took that with varying degrees of acceptance, perhaps the least volatile assumption being that my uncle had told me who was skilled and who wasn’t among my peers during one of our “supposed talks” where I was snitching to him all the bad things his trainees have been up to.

I sighed heavily as I stood by him. I could see Lance smirk at me as though he personally came up with the insult. Most of the others were just either ignoring me or giving me cautious glances.

“How many days this time, Sam?” Ernie asked, taking from my sigh that my punishment was related to the very appropriate name he had given me. He, like a few other people, called me Sam, the name I felt most comfortable with.

“I don’t know,” I replied morosely. “He wants me to meet the stable master tonight after supper.”

“Ouch,” Ernie said with a wince. He knew as well as I did what that meant. The stable master was not a strict man. However, he knew from experience that those sent to him without a particular period for punishment probably did some terrible misdemeanour. As such he would impart his own duration which was often longer than what most teachers, even my uncle, would give when a student was tasked to clean out the stables. “Maybe you can tell him you were given three days.”

“You know that wouldn’t work,” I sighed. “He always checks with whoever handed out the punishment. And if the days don’t match I can get into a lot of trouble. If the stories are true, the last trainee that tried that ended up cleaning the stables for a year.”

“Come on,” Ernie said with a snort. “No one would give that kind of punishment for a whole year. That would just be far too cruel.”

“Well, you try it then next time you’re given stable duty,” I said with a smirk. “I’m not going to risk my neck to find out.”

“Maybe I will,” he said with a smirk. I didn’t know if he would actually do it. Ernie was a bit of a prankster and had a charisma that could sway anyone his way when he wanted them to. It was how he somehow managed to escape every punishment that should have been given to him for some of his pranks. It was also probably the reason that the other trainees did not give him cruel names. He was too entertaining and fun to have around.

“What are we doing here anyway?” I asked. We were formed in lines on either side of the path that led out of the courtyard. This formation was common only when we were welcoming new trainees that would be joining us in the Academy.

“Apparently, we’re welcoming more trainees,” he said with a shrug.

“What?” another boy our age said. His name was Nathan. Although he was not outwardly friendly towards me, he had never been mean either. We talked often enough but mostly because he often placed himself in Ernie’s company. Then again he was strange in his own sort of way, having developed an almost unnatural fascination for nature and everything that goes on in it. “Again? We just welcomed trainees six months ago.”

“Well that’s what I heard anyway,” Ernie replied.

The situation was strange to Nathan perhaps because he had been in the Academy longer than I have been. He was one of those children born to two mages in Malden. Although he did not start his training in the Academy until he was twelve, he had seen often enough the horses that arrived bearing new trainees for the Academy. From his experience, trainees arrived only every year.

“At this rate, we’re going to be overcrowded here,” Nathan said. He wasn’t complaining. In fact, it almost sounded like he was just making an observation and did not really care either way. I knew from Ernie though that Nathan liked his privacy and did not appreciate having to share a room with another student.

“The doors are opening!” Ernie exclaimed excitedly as though it was something we had been waiting for the longest time. Indeed, the large double doors that led from the outside to the courtyard were creaking open as several horses trotted slowly in with two occupants riding each.

It was tradition that a journeyman in training would undergo. It was considered a rite of passage that a mage would bring to Malden a new mage to be trained as he or she was once brought there. I, myself, had passed through those doors once, sitting in front of a journeyman named Devon. He had come to my home one day with a letter written by my uncle and the news that I had at last been chosen by The Lady to train at Malden. My younger brother Little Joe, who was two years younger than me, turned green with envy but was nonetheless sincerely happy for me.

Devon and I spent close to four days travelling from our little village of Alba and in that short amount of time, I’d developed a closeness to him as though he was the older brother I never had. I knew he too felt protective of me in that way as he still often checked in on me and even gave me stern lectures when I had placed a toe over the line.

I knew without even thinking about it that these new trainees would develop similar bonds to those who came for them.

“I remember you fidgeting on the horse the whole time when it was your turn,” came a voice from behind me. It startled me again and I was starting to wonder if everyone was planning to sneak up on me.

“Devon!” I said jovially as my old friend and companion smiled at me. He had always been much taller than I was being twenty-five years old while I was just fourteen. Still, he was not exceptionally tall and I knew that one day I might even be taller than him.

“I can’t believe it’s been two, almost three, years since I came riding through those doors with you,” Devon said almost wistfully. The riders all dismounted with their charges. The future trainees looked extremely nervous as they were introduced to my uncle and several other teachers. “It’s amazing how much you’ve grown. I don’t think a horse could take both our weights now.” He smiled. “At least not a horse bred outside Malden.”

“Oh Devon, we all know you’re fat but we won’t take it against you,” Ernie said seriously. Several trainees nearby chuckled but did not dare laugh out loud at the journeyman. Ernie wouldn’t have normally dared crack a joke like that to a journeyman but he was used enough to Devon by then that he could get away with (that was unless a master was nearby). The jab was obviously a jab because of the fact that Devon was perhaps the most fit journeyman we knew, covered completely by lean muscle and not an ounce of fat.

“Fat?” he asked with a chuckle as he reached over and started pinching the side of Ernie’s stomach. He trapped between his fingers a very generous portion of what could not under any circumstance be mistaken as muscle. Ernie squirmed out of his grip, blushing furiously. “I think you can use a few more hours in weapons training, young man.”

“Young man, is it?” Ernie retorted. “I think you’re starting to go senile on us, Devon.”

I was about to laugh but instead gasped as a sudden pain pierced my chest. I shivered despite the warmth and felt my legs go weak. I would have fallen if Devon’s quick reflexes did not catch me quickly.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, alarm showing in his face.

I blinked a few times at him as I tried to catch my breath. I could feel something cold spreading across my chest as though something sinister was flowing through my blood. “I… I…”

“Should we take him to the infirmary?” Ernie asked worriedly.

We all turned as there was a sudden commotion from the entrance. People were looking out at it though I couldn’t see over their heads to see what it was.

“What’s happening?” Nathan asked. He kept turning from me to the door where everyone was starting to crowd as though he couldn’t decide which was more interesting.

“What’s that sound?” Ernie asked with a frown.

I concentrated and could hear a constant beating sound as though a horse was galloping rapidly. True enough, a horse came galloping in later, quickly scattering the crowd that moved aside to let it pass.

“Is that blood?” Nathan asked in horror as he stared at the rider.

Even Devon who was supporting me had his eyes fixated at the scene. His face went pale as he recognized the rider.

I looked up, ignoring the nausea threatening to overwhelm and saw a journeyman on a horse. Her face and clothes were splattered with blood as she clutched hard to her chest an unconscious and even bloodier body.

“It’s Flo,” Devon whispered as he took one look at me to see if I could stand on my own. Ernie reached out and helped support me then nodded to Devon. Devon quickly nodded back before moving towards the rider, a journeyman whose name was Flo. I couldn’t blame him because I knew the two were involved romantically.

“Move aside,” my uncle said. He did not shout but spoke with such authority that everyone followed immediately. He and several other masters and even older trainees helped the rider dismount.

“I want to see what’s happening,” I said, short of breath.

“You’re not well,” Ernie said as his grip tightened slightly on my arms as though worried I would run away at any moment. “Maybe you should sit down.”

“I want to…” I said and stopped as I suddenly found myself shouting and writhing on the floor. I could feel arms trying to hold me down.

At the same time I could feel a dark presence clouding my vision as though someone was trying to take over my body, to see with my eyes, to feel with my body. Finally, someone held me still with strong hands and my eyes focused long enough to see a familiar face that was both known and unknown, both loved and hated.

“You…” I said with a voice that was not my own. It was both younger and older at the same time. It held a tinge of innocence and something sinister as well. I stared with anger and disbelief at the face of Edward Aenhol.

“Enough,” he said seriously with something much more powerful than the force of his voice.

Suddenly, I felt something pushed out of my body and hurled somewhere far away. A sense of peace enveloped me as the strange presence departed or was forced away. I felt my head loll to the side and I could see just enough as my vision started to dim the figure of Edward Aenhol crouching at a distance over the form of a bloodied trainee.

I wondered in the back of my head how he got all the way there so quickly when he was just crouching over me.