Runic Apprentice, page 17
part #1 of The Rune Mystic Series
The queen added, “In fact, you should try to incorporate the field into future competitions somehow, to encourage your students to develop and learn open field tactics, perhaps while judging the winners of the competition, you could weigh any fights in the field with bias because of difficulty. That may encourage some to take the chance, even if knocked out earlier. If they last long enough and took down enough foes, they can take the competition anyway.”
Tanner’s face turned red, and he could see the amusement in Cassandra’s eyes as the bastard swallowed whatever words he wanted to share, though he doubted anyone else but Lia and Sam knew Cassandra well enough to notice.
Cassandra said, “Excellent idea, your majesty. We’ll hold a masters meeting to discuss such a change and come up with guidelines before the next competition.”
Tanner bowed, “As Cassandra said, your majesty.”
Tanner beat a retreat at that point, but Olin was worried the man would find a way to take his pound of flesh.
He’d not only embarrassed Tanner’s team of ten fire mages in a fight that should’ve gone the other way, but at that point he’d also embarrassed the tower master in front of the queen.
Not that it was really his fault, Tanner’s over the top anger and self-righteousness had done the job nicely, but he doubted the man would or could admit that even to himself.
Cassandra waited until both Tanner and the queen were out of earshot.
“We’re going to talk about this later but enjoy your day off. I’ll be busy with the other masters ranking the competitors and deciding the top ten.”
Cassandra hadn’t sounded all that angry, and he got the idea she just wasn’t happy about being blindsided. Clearly, in hindsight, he should’ve clued her into his plans, since it was such a radical departure of the standard tactics used in the competitions.
They headed back to the tower for lunch.
He could’ve done without the drama, or making the fire tower guild master his enemy, but he still thought it’d been a good idea.
Chapter Twenty-Two
He happily drowned in her alluring feminine scent, and the feel of her soft body against him on the couch as they cuddled and chatted quietly. They’d shared a few intimate kisses that night, but in moderation. He wasn’t immune to temptation by any means, and Lia’s soft beauty and loving touches could be overwhelming at times, but he wanted to do it right and wait until they were married.
They were both untouched that way, and it was important to both of them, but at the same time those lines got awfully blurry when he got a taste of her lips.
It was the night following the competition. Sam and Karen had already left on Sam’s next assignment, and his Lia would be leaving him again the next morning. Two days between missions was rather short, but with increased activity on both borders there were a lot of jobs to be done.
He held her a little tighter against his side, with his arm around her, as if afraid she might run away when she heard what he had to say.
He said, “I’ll miss you, my love. I have something I need to tell you, before you go.”
She turned her head, and looked up into his eyes, and he almost lost his train of thought.
“You sound nervous?”
He shrugged, “I probably should’ve told you a long time ago, which is why I’m nervous, not so much about what. I’ve been hiding it from everyone, but I’m pretty sure Cassandra figured it out, she could hardly have failed to do so given my rune work.”
She kissed his cheek, and said, “Spit it out, it can’t be that bad. Do you suck at scribing?”
He laughed, “The opposite, but thanks for the confidence in me.”
She giggled, “I was teasing, my mystic. Do you think I’m stupid? Of course, I knew. I also think you’re being wise, not coming up with new rune spells. I imagine you could do much better in competitions if you did.”
He was thunderstruck for a moment, but then replied, “Maybe, power and experience makes a big difference. Of course, I figured out how to fix the power rune, to make it a truly safe storage medium, but I’m not sure it would be wise to ever use it, or to share it. How?”
She smirked, “How did I know? For one, it was one of your very first questions that you ever asked me, what I knew about mystics, it made me curious. You tried to be casual, but I could see how desperately you wanted to know the answer. It made me curious, and suspicious. You’re also very attractive, and interesting, so I paid attention. Your also my best friend, and I hope my future husband, and father of our children. I know you very well, Olin.”
It was always good to know she was as attracted to him as he was to her, which was saying a lot from his point of view, her beauty still struck him speechless at times. Still, he suspected he might explode from passion without an outlet for another nine months. Maybe it was a good thing she was absent so often, it helped him deal with that temptation.
Of course, it took two, but he knew she struggled with it too. He could see the desire in her eyes to surrender to that passion, but they were strong enough to resist it, to do it right, or so he told himself, often. Maybe Sam had been right, as far as he could tell they were both already committed.
He nodded, “Even after I’m a fully matured mage as far as power, and gain the rank, I haven’t found anything that either isn’t covered or isn’t all that important. Not important enough to expose myself to the royal family and other tower masters anyway. A few improvements to runes, but I suspect they were made that way on purpose, to maintain some balance of power, and not turn all the rest of the mages against the rune mages in fear.”
He added, “I also suspect the rune mystics of the past wanted to keep an edge over the rest of the rune mages, and they did use runes similar to the fixes I’ve come up with, but they didn’t share them or put them in the library. I have no proof of course, but its heavily implied in the rune connector limitations, that don’t need to exist. But I don’t want to be that kind of person.”
She kissed him softly, “You’ll never be that way, I know you Olin, who you are. You’re wise enough to hide the truth, and you’ll never be a monster lording your power over others.”
He believed that was true as well.
She asked, “What’s it like?”
He shrugged, “I never forget a rune I’ve seen, and I can also feel what it does, and if it’s drawn correctly. That’s really the only advantage, everything else is the hard way. Of course, it makes it safer to experiment if I was so inclined, because I can tell if a rune is balanced. Not completely safe though, since magical theory isn’t intuitive at all to me, I learned that the hard way.
“That’s another good reason not to make new runes, until I’m far more experienced and fully understand the advanced concepts.”
She nodded, “Nothing about it tempts you?”
He laughed, “You’re far more tempting, my love,” she blushed beautifully at the raw desire in his voice that he hadn’t meant to come out, she also looked more than a bit breathless with desire herself.
He admitted, “Just one thing, I’d love to see the spells on this place, and figure out how they did permanent magic. Just to understand it, if nothing else.”
She sighed, “So sad, that you’re out of luck.”
He laughed, sensing a tease coming, “Why’s that?”
She waved her hand, and said in faux arrogance, “Because I’m obviously going to be the next tower mistress, when Cassandra retires. So, you’ll never get access. I’d never break the laws, even for my own husband.”
He chuckled, and suspected though she was teasing she was also probably right. He might be able to make rune spells, but he’d never be as powerful as Lia was, raw magic wise. While not the only determinant in who inherited the tower master position, it was important. Gods knew his Lia was as intelligent and clever as she was beautiful and powerful, and more than qualified.
Still, who knew what could happen in a couple of generations. Gods willing, Cassandra would serve another forty or fifty years, she was only in her early thirties, and mages aged a bit slower. Laws and rules changed. They were threatened on two borders, and Tanner had rebellious thoughts. He figured the only thing holding Tanner back was four of the towers would side with the royal family.
“You could show me an illusion of the glyphs, without breaking the law.”
She laughed, “Maybe, if you’re good.”
She moved away, “Going to get a drink.”
That was a good idea, she was far too tempting in his arms.
Alone again the next day, he started to notice the unfriendly looks he garnered from both fire and death mages. He guessed that stemmed from the competition, and of course Tanner led the fire mages and they’d take their lead from him. He never thought he’d wish for stiff formality between the mage towers, but he found he missed it.
On the good side, the life and water mages seemed friendlier than usual, while the rest looked at him more speculatively.
He was fairly sure no one would attack him, but he wondered if he’d be hunted specifically next month during the next competition.
In class that afternoon, was when Cassandra finally broached the talk that she’d promised.
“Master Tanner gave me a headache the last two days, and it’s all your fault.”
He asked, “What’s the fallout on this. Things seem unsettled all around.”
She replied, “He thinks you made all that stuff up on the spot, and you did mock the competition. I know better of course, but if you’d informed me of your plans, I’d have suggested a change. Your intent matters far less than results, and the perception of others. The rest wasn’t your fault, but he blames you for needing to change the competition, and how we judge it.”
He told her about the changes, how he was treated by the other towers the last couple of mornings.
She nodded, “Just so. Aubrey and Jace are excited about the change the queen asked for, gives us better training. Sun was against it, much like Tanner, their people followed their lead. The others were fairly neutral, not sure how much it would really help, but at the same time sure it wouldn’t hurt anything either.”
He said, “You’ve never asked for my tactics before, but I can see the difference now. I went too far from the norm.”
She sighed, “Perhaps, and I would appreciate a warning if you ever do anything similar, but it truly isn’t your fault. I believe he was far madder the three of you took out ten of his mages than the picnic part. He just couldn’t make it about that.”
She laughed ruefully, “I suppose you could even blame me for it, because I used to hand him his ass on a regular basis in the competitions. He truly dislikes our guild for our advantages, but he ignores the fact we also have weaknesses.”
He sighed, “I think that’s more about the fact Lia, Sam, and I never teamed up before. Without suicidal tactics, we’d have done even better.”
She snickered, “Exactly, and in another eight months you’ll be a fully matured mage. I think you understand how much of an advantage wielding a sword gives, when you can focus most of your magic on defense. Offensive spells always consume more magic.”
“Lia mentioned Tanner’s political aspirations once, will this make that worse?”
Cassandra frowned, “Let me worry about that. You’re just an apprentice, focus on your magic and improving yourself. You shouldn’t need to worry about that sort of thing until you’re a master mage, then politics becomes important. I’m not saying to ignore it but try not to worry over it.”
He took that for a resounding yes, but he’d also try to take that advice to heart. He was just an apprentice, that kind of thing wasn’t his responsibility.
She shook her head, “Regardless, try to stay out of trouble. No trips out of the tower on your own and avoid the shared library for a couple of weeks, until things settle down. I don’t think Tanner would order anything precipitous, but his attitude could form ideas in some of his people.”
He wasn’t sure what to say to that, was he really in danger of more than a dirty look? It was the traditions and customs he supposed that prevented that for the most part. It was difficult to form true enmity across the guilds when they weren’t supposed to associate at all, but he supposed he’d managed to find a way around that.
Of course, it was all taken out of proportion, and that was Tanner’s fault. Nor was it a fair judgement. That didn’t change the reality of it though, and that’s what he had to deal with.
He changed the subject, “I’ve been wondering, is it possible to use a power rune as a secondary connector. As the primary, it has to be the focus. For instance, the two most common wards, in the primary position as the start of the spell, which will launch our protections. What if we linked both wards to a power rune to prevent feedback, then the third stage of the spell would be the shields in a starburst, linked to a consecutive, linked to another starburst for enhancements. It’s a more complicated setup, but it would mean only setting up one instead of two advanced spells for shielding.”
Not that it overly mattered, he already had two setups for it.
She tilted her head, “It might work, but as you know experimentation is forbidden, and there are strict rules surrounding that rune’s use. In the end, it doesn’t matter, because you’re proscribed from ever trying it. The other connector runes have more general rules and accepted uses, where you can be creative because under the rules and instructions in the books it’s safe to do so, and well-established.”
He nodded, “I understand.”
She added, “I also suspect if you ran out of magic, or for some unseen reason was prevented from powering the ward when it was triggered to increase your shields, the power ward would still destabilize catastrophically. I imagine if the ward stopped feeding it, it would be much like you losing focus on it in the primary position. There could be other dangers in the idea besides that which we have no clue even exist, which is why experimentation is forbidden. The magic outlined in the library is safe, relatively, if the instructions and procedures are followed to the letter. While we know a lot about magical theory, we hardly know everything.”
He nodded, “The permanent spells on the towers tell me that, and I suspect even the ones that came before us, before mages were overthrown, and who knew more than us, didn’t know everything. I wasn’t going to try it, I was just curious to hear your thoughts on the matter.”
She nodded, “It is normal to be curious, and even I who believe the status quo is best, also believe that the strictures on experimentation is partially so that the mages don’t regain their ascendency. But there is also wisdom in avoiding the danger, even back then I suspect that experimentation of any kind was strictly monitored and performed by master mages and the mystics only. Let’s move on.”
He nodded, and their regular class got started.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Three more months quickly passed for Olin. Seven and a half months since he’d walked into the tower doors for the first time.
His and Lia’s courting was going very well, but he saw less and less of her as she was sent on longer missions. At the same time, they’d never talked more, and often used the air spell rune that would allow them to communicate over the miles. She was very much almost a constant presence in his life, even if he greatly missed her sense of presence, her beautiful smile, her scent, and her touch while she was gone, he still looked forward to their talks every evening.
It was also the mid-point of their courting, he’d been wooing her for six months at that point, and they were closer than ever. There were arguments, and on the opposite side there was more than just a little temptation to get in some intimate practice before their marriage night. It wasn’t all that easy at times, but the best things in life never were, and she was by far the best thing in his life. She was as stubborn as Sam once intimated, which was one of the things he treasured about her.
The big picture didn’t change all that much. There were a few more small skirmishes on the border but no large-scale army movements. The Vemor empire was obviously testing them for weakness, but as of yet they hadn’t attempted to invade on a large scale. Equally, it was clear that the Dreston Kingdom had their eyes to the west, and they were watching Reton closely, though there were no skirmishes on that border. At some point, something would break, but while it was something he was aware of, there wasn’t much a rune apprentice could do about it.
Or a master mage for that matter, their foreign policy was in the hands of the queen.
Personally, things were going well, he’d never been stronger, and at seven and a half months he was about halfway to the point his growth in magic would slow. That said, because of the geometric nature of the growth, he wasn’t even close to half as powerful as he’d be in another six months.
He was wary about the guilds, and how they treated him. He continued to try not to put himself in a situation where he was vulnerable. It was a bit suffocating to be honest, he hardly left the tower outside of daily late morning sword practice and his sixth and seventh competitions, without Lia around most of the time it was rare for him to even go into the city at all. His eighth competition would be in a couple of days. With Lia gone for the last two, they hadn’t been able to team up again, but he knew by the guilds own rules Lia would have to be present for the next one, and she would be back in the city the next day.
He was looking forward to that, both having her there at least three days, and their first chance to team up again. He wasn’t even sure what her tactics were going to be for their team-up, she could be a tease at times, and kept putting him off.
As far as his personal tactics in the last two competitions, he’d made a stand inside one of the buildings in the mock village, which hadn’t worked out very well. The seventh competition he went back to the forest, which worked a little better.
His sword work had improved in leaps and bounds, but the title of blade master was still quite a way off, but he suspected very few people could match him outside of life-mage blade masters. He wasn’t tempted to call it good enough though, he wouldn’t be satisfied until he’d achieved that goal, and even at that point he’d have to practice every day to retain his edge.
