The Hero's Recusants (Akynd Chronicles Book 1), page 2
Growing impatient Keldon shouted over Li’mak, cutting him off mid-insult, causing Li’mak and Ji’leon both to flinch. “ENOUGH!” Taking a breath to steady himself, he continued slowly, in a more gentle voice that made his odd accent stand out all the more. “I have brought you back–not to torture you, not to kill you again, not to track down your easily found tribes and slaughter them–” he paused and lowered his voice even further, speaking in as soothing a voice as he could manage, “but simply because you did not deserve to die. You are a good man, you have done great things, and therefore you will not die by my hand. I killed you for a time because you, as proven now, seem incapable of handling the possibility that I am not some evil being, nor some villain committing violence for control. I could not risk you attacking again if I were to spare your life. So I... paused your life, and if it is alright with you, I would very much like to let you continue it.”
This time there was no fear in Li’mak’s face. There was no curiosity. There was nothing but a look of utter and complete confusion. “So… you have... you...? Keldon the black-hearted... merciless Donovan, slayer of thousands... You have decided to let me just... go on with my business, despite having tried to kill you?”
“Despite what the general populace might imply about my tactics in battle, I have yet to kill anyone who did not deserve to be killed. I may fight unfairly, and that is only when outnumbered by the evils I face, but that is the extent of my ’evil ways’.” The bitterness in his tone made his disdain for that viewpoint rather obvious. “Do we have a truce?” he added, after a moment’s hesitation.
Looking slightly uncomfortable, the barbarian shifted around in his grassy bonds. “We...” nodding thoughtfully, the man hiccupped. “Truce.” Instantly the bindings fell back into the dirt, allowing the man his freedom. Li’mak quickly scrambled to his feet, picking up his large axe that was lying on the ground about a foot away. Standing ready for combat, he raised his axe. “Ha-ha! I’ll have no tricks out of you Donovan!”
Sighing softly, Keldon raised a hand towards the barbarian and uttered a few quick syllables, “Nel-Tok-Hik-Ma.” Beams of light shot forth from his outstretched palm and covered the barbarian, and he smiled. “Tell the tribes I said hello.” With a loud pop and a flash of color Li’mak was gone.
“That was...” Ji’leon began, pausing as Keldon interrupted.
“What? Nice?” The scorn was evident in his voice. “I know, it is odd that one portrayed in such a manner can actually do something nice. I do nice things rather often. Why is it that whenever I do something nice everyone finds it so hard to believe? Why is it that if I slaughter a town full of evil people, I am evil for doing it, even though the world knew that that town was filled with horrible people? Why can I not ever just-”
“I was going to say rude, referring to the way he thanked you by trying to battle,” interrupted Ji’leon, much more confident in her decision to leave with Keldon now that she had seen this other side of him. “But if you’d like, you can continue ranting. Although to be quite honest, I’ll probably just nap until you are done, today has been rather eventful and I’m quite tired.” She stretched as if exhausted, and grinned, her former fear falling easily into her witty sarcastic manner.
“Oh...” murmured Keldon, clearly surprised. After a brief, albeit awkward pause, he cleared his throat. “Well, I suppose we should get some rest then.” He pulled from his pocket a small object that looked like a pepper shaker, and set it on the ground. Waving his hand once over it he whispered, “Chinuk.” The pepper shaker grew into a large crystalline tower. “Come in, you will find I have a room made up for you already.”
“Sir Donovan, you are a most extraordinary man,” gasped the startled wizard as she looked up at the structure. He smiled and walked into the tower, followed closely behind by Ji’leon.
Chapter 2
The Plight of the Wizard
Keldon paced back and forth slowly in the training room. It was a large room with enough space for two hundred men to comfortably do battle with each other. At the moment though, there were not two hundred men; simply Keldon, pacing with his black cloak swishing behind him, and of course, Ji’leon, the source of his pacing. Pausing for a moment, he raised his head, sighed, and announced with authority, “Again!”
Ji’leon stumbled awkwardly around a straw combat dummy, swinging a sword with an obviously untrained hand. Snorting, she dropped the sword and turned to face Keldon. “What is the meaning of this? When I suggested coming with you I did not expect you to force the...” the next word she considered carefully, then it fell from her mouth dripping with disgust and sarcasm, “Art of swordplay. I figured you would either kill me, or send me away. At the very best, perhaps train me in some of your magic. I’ve yet to pick up a book, utter a spell, or even wave my hands for the most basic of cantrips!”
Keldon shook his head slowly, considering how to dispute the woman’s point most tactfully. Then, he threw tact aside and went with what flowed naturally. “First of all, it doesn’t make sense to allow you to come along if I were to immediately send you away or kill you. If I wanted you dead, I would have left you there. If I wanted you away from me, again, I would have left you there. Second, I brought you along because you, of the three, were the only one who expressed that the notion I could be innocent was not completely ridiculous. Third, if you desire to stay by my side, you will not be weak. I have no weaknesses, and I will not allow you to become one, therefore you must be capable of fending for yourself. Now pick up the sword and run through it again!”
Infuriated, the wizard snorted, her fingers fidgeting with the book on her hip as she retorted. “Listen here, Sir Donovan. I am far from weak, and I am far from incapable at fending for myself. I choose to utilize a -real- artistic form of combat, instead of this savage blade swinging. Never once have I entered an encounter where my magic was not enough! And even if such an event were to occur, I would flee or teleport away before resorting to the barbaric art of hacking someone to pieces!”
Sighing softly Keldon extended a finger towards the woman, pointing towards her waist. “And now, I suppose I shall have to prove my point. Nel-Tok-Hik-Ma!” A blast of light struck Ji’leon in the hip, in the direct region of her now missing book. “Come on then, mage, duel me, or teleport away. Whatever your preference is.” Pulling a small short blade, he paced towards her with his sword hand extended away from his body.
Reaching for her book, Ji’leon grimaced upon the realization of its absence. She was a wizard! Without a spell book she could cast the simplest of spells, but that was it. “Oh that’s not fair at all! Where is my spell book!?”
Grinning, Keldon continued to pace towards the unarmed wizard with sword outstretched. “You have been completely disarmed of your spellbook, and have only your blade. Strike me once with your blade and I will give you your spell book and our lessons shall shift focus to magic. Just once. But if I strike you, we run drills until your fingers bleed.”
Gritting her teeth, determined, the wizard went over any of the spells she could think of, mostly useless in combat... unless... She swiftly outstretched her hand toward the blade at her feet “Eloki!” The sword appeared in her hand and she pulled it back, Keldon now just a few feet away. Looking at the smooth tile surface, she grinned and pointed just above Keldon’s head “Weatuk!” she shouted, and several gallons of water appeared out of thin air above Keldon’s head. She called out the spell again and again, drenching him in water.
Laughing as the water covered his head Keldon continued his slow approach. He called to her playfully, “It will take more than a little dampness to bring down Keldon the black-hearted!”
On that note, she pointed the tip of her blade at the expanding puddle under Keldon, who was now entirely soaked and standing in about 30 gallons of water spread across the floor. She pulled a spell from memory she had used a lot, one for causing a spark of electrical current in order to light her oven when she was younger. “Spirukuss!”
Keldon’s eyes widened as he realized he had been had. Electricity struck the puddle, then firing thousands of volts up his legs and throughout his body. He shook violently, unable to focus long enough to end the effect. The sword fell out of his hand as his fingers seized, and with one wrong twitch of his leg the wet, sheer tile slipped out from under him. He landed on his back, unarmed, knocking his head hard on the floor as the spell ended. She was above him in a flash, her sword extended towards his neck, a look of triumph on her face. She casually pushed the sword forward until it lightly pricked his skin, and then said slyly “Why, Sir Donovan, you seem to have been struck!”
Pushing the blade away he stood. Brushing off his robes he said nothing, seeming somewhat displeased with the outcome of the battle. “Bah,” he finally grunted, “you were meant to use the sword alone. If you thi-”
Interrupting him eagerly, Ji’leon’s words came out in a flourish. “Now now, Sir Donovan, you wouldn’t be going back on your word would you? I was to strike you without using my spell book, those were the rules and I have succeeded.”
Sagging his head, defeated, Keldon sighed. “Very well. Go, clean up, rest, whatever it is you would do to prepare. We begin your journey tonight.” With that, Ji’leon scurried off to prepare.
As night approached, Ji’leon went looking for Keldon. Catching a glimpse of him where she had defeated him earlier, she approached slowly, trying not to interrupt as he went through some seemingly meaningless tasks. He pulled from his pocket a small thimble and waved his hand over it, as he whispered, “Chinuk.” The thimble expanded into a large fire bowl, the fires within came to life with a dull crackle. After a long pause, he cleared his throat and turned to face her. “Now...” he started, rubbing the back of his head. “This will be hard for you to grasp, are you sure you want to learn it? It will most definitely hurt, and I do not mean physically.”
Laughing lightheartedly Ji’leon replied, “If I can use a sword to prick you, I can do anything. Teach me your worst, Sir Donovan.”
Lowering his head he called back the spell book, showing it to her carefully. “This is yours, correct?” She nodded curiously as he paged through the book, getting to the end where a few blank pages remain untouched. She grimaced as he reached into the book and tore all of the blank pages but one from the book, but stood strong; figuring there had to be a reason. Keldon then reached into his pocket, pulling forth a small mirror. He placed it gently on that page then closed the book softly. The small clasp on the book fastened tightly, securing the mirror in its place. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked again as he walked a circular pattern, putting the fire pit between them, and again she nodded. He reached out over the firepit as if to hand her the book, and released it from his grasp directly into the crackling fire.
The fire sprung up, quickly consuming the dry pages of the book as the wizard looked on furiously. “What in the hells!? Do you have any idea how many years of work is contained in this tome!?” Frantically the wizard tried to fetch the book from the flames, each time a small wall of fire blocking her path, threatening to burn her skin. Suddenly, she felt the strong grip of Keldon holding tight to her in a somewhat protective manner, shielding her from the flames. Then, he reached up and took a firm hold on her short tufts of hair as he pushed her head down into the fire. Sure that she was going to die, Ji’leon held her breath and tried to escape his grasp.
“Settle, Ji’leon. Breath,” Keldon said softly, seeming unaffected by destroying the wizard’s life work and then thrusting her head into a fire. His tone softened further, and became hypnotic “Breath, Ji’leon.”
The words tore through her brain. Part of her knew she was being hypnotized. That same part knew how to fight it, how to reverse it, and was completely unaffected by the effects. However, another part of her yearned for the calm that the hypnosis offered. She could not overpower him, if he wanted to burn her head off in a fire, her head would be burnt off in a fire. At least she could be calm doing it. She released her desire to fight, and instantaneous relaxation struck her body as she breathed the smoke deep into her lungs. With each breath the burning lessened. Symbols, images, and numbers flowed through her mind from some unknown source until finally, the fire extinguished and she collapsed to the floor as the fire pit shrank and began to return to the shape of a thimble.
Opening her eyes slowly, Ji’leon glanced around the room. Keldon was sleeping soundly in a chair by her side. She reached under her pillow where her spell book always lay, eager to prove that her dream was untrue. She found nothing. Furious, she mustered all her strength and punched the sleeping Keldon in the face. Much to her surprise, this caused him to fly backwards out of his chair and smash into the wall. She looked down at her hands in amazement as the battered Keldon stood slowly, rubbing his jaw. “Nice to see you are awake. It only took three weeks.”
Snapping her attention back at Keldon she snorted and yelled, “You said you would teach me magic! Not burn my life’s work! You’re just as black-hearted as they claim! I never should have listened to you! I am nothing now!”
“Calm down, Ji’leon, allow me the chance to prove that I have not wronged you,” Keldon replied, with his hands raised defensively.
“Prove you haven’t wronged me?! I am a wizard! Wizards utilize spell books to cast their spells, otherwise they are nothing! How hard is that to understand?”
“You are not a wizard. Not anymore, that is how you have obtained access to a higher magic.”
Breathing rapidly, she flushed red as anger radiated off of her. She spoke through clenched teeth in a low, hostile tone. “I’m not a wizard? My entire life has been dedicated to the study of the weave, and you are telling me you’ve just… undone it?” She clenched her fists, glaring daggers at Keldon as she shouted, “Well then what am I now then that is so magical?!”
“You are like me. To my knowledge you are the second of us, as I have traveled far and never met any other. I like to refer to our abilities as Akynd, a shortened form of Akyndred. Unless you have another name preference? I mean, now that there are two of us, it seems only fair that you have some say in what we go by, yes?”
Ji’leon’s breathing slowed as she tried to understand what she was hearing. She thought back to her schooling and remembered learning of the incantation. “Akyndred? The returning spell? What do you mean?”
Smiling and glad that she knew of the spell, Keldon responded happily. “Yes, the returning spell. The spell’s nature is to return the same effect cast upon you to the user, and since that is very similar to what is my nature, and now yours, I figured it was a fitting name—though we are returning spells that were never cast to begin with.”
“How does it work?” she replied somewhat calmly, her curiosity slowly beating down her anger.
“Let me answer your question with a question,” Keldon replied with a furrow of his brow as he tried to help her understand. “Have you, in your time as a wizard, ever come across a spell you could not master? One that was outside your reach, or for some other reason you were incapable of casting?”
“Well... yes. In the ancient tomes in the Library of Curliko I came across a spell that would shift one’s shape. I tried to utilize the spell and failed miserably, resulting in the scorching of my hair. It is...” she paused, and seemed kind of embarrassed about her appearance for the first time since they met. “It is the reason my hair is cut so... strangely.”
“Well then, go ahead and give it a try.”
“What?” she asked nervously. “I don’t even have a book; I haven’t read on the subject for months!”
“I understand. Proceed. Cast the spell. You will succeed.”
Scoffing furiously at Keldon’s lack of an explanation, she snorted at first, but eventually decided to give it a shot. Worst case scenario her hair would get a little shorter. So she breathed slowly and closed her eyes, focusing on, for now, just fixing her hair. Shape shifting into someone that appeared just like her, only with normal hair. Perhaps better eyesight. Words began to fall out of her mouth, as if someone else had put them there. “Nelupa-Uupat-Miya!”
Ji’leon’s eyes remained clenched shut as Keldon looked upon her. Her small tufts of dark hair slowly grew and darkened further, the patchy highlights arranging themselves in an orderly fashion. Singed ends became flawless strands of short, brown hair and continued to grow until just barely longer than her longest finger. When her hair stopped growing Keldon smiled, as her eyes were still clenched shut, as if she was afraid of the outcome. Turning a large mirror on the dresser behind him to face her, he called her name softly. “Ji’leon, look.”
Opening her eyes, Ji’leon glanced in the mirror, and then her eyes feasted on the image before her. She took her glasses off and tossed them to the bed; her spell had worked, and she wouldn’t need them anymore. The disarray she’d worn her hair in for all those years was gone. Instead, it had grown back into her short, spiked brown hair, with small highlights dancing throughout. There was just enough curl in the spike of her hair to return some of the femininity to her face. No more would she have to deal with people conversing with her for several minutes, only to see the shock and disgust in their face when they discovered she was in fact a she, not a he. She opened her mouth in shock. “Oh... but... how?”
“Akynd it is then, yes?” Keldon smiled, chuckling softly as the last of her anger seemed to dissolve. “Allow me to explain. How to put this in your terms... When I burnt your spell book, along with the blank page and the mirror, normally it would be a travesty for a wizard, as I am sure you know. All of their past magic has perished, so unless they wish to start the process again from the beginning, they are without it. Most often they give up on life after that, choosing death over a life without magic. However, since I had you inhale the enchanted fumes of your most precious belonging, bound to the inscribed booklet, your old spells and knowledge were stored in your memory. The mirror and blank page allows you to take any spell, any ability, anything you have ever even heard of, and return that image to your mind, whether or not it was ever even there. You can do things now you have only heard about in children’s stories. It might take some getting used to, but it will definitely make your training go better.”
