Chapter Five

  Olin’s plan to keep his distance both worked and failed dreadfully.

  Neal was a nice enough fellow, but the man was a bit too arrogant. He wasn’t all bad in Olin’s books, Neal was generous with his knowledge and opinions, and even had some empathy for others. He wasn’t rude or uncouth either. But if a conversation came across a difference of opinion he was rather scathingly arrogant of the opinions of others, which just rubbed him wrong. So, for Neal, his intention to keep his professional distance, rather than just get to know two more people he would miss once he got to the tower, went off without a hitch.

  In fact, he was pretty sure Neal had the same plan in regard to him.

  Despite his best efforts, his plan failed miserably by the third day of their trip when it came to Caley. She seemed to have a double helping of compassion, and she would be a natural healer he was sure. He was also sure she’d be a hell of a swordswoman, because she had a lot of fire and didn’t back down. Small package, big attitude, tempered by her natural compassion and bright outlook on life.

  Caley also it seemed, had made it her personal mission to not allow Olin to wallow in his losses at all, and to cheer him up, whether he liked it or not.

  At first, he’d tried to dissuade her of this mission, short of being unforgivably rude, but she was as stubborn as she was empathetic and wouldn’t leave him be. By the third day, she’d quite handily won him over, and he didn’t want to brush her off any longer. He didn’t feel so lonely or depressed when she was chatting with him.

  In fact, he rather thought she’d make a great friend, and was already someone he’d miss when he got to the tower. At best, they’d see each other in a few joined classes for apprentices, since they were both arriving at the same time chances were there’d be some joint learning going on.

  He’d wound up unburdening himself, and telling her the whole story, still not quite sure how it’d happened. It was obvious the young lady really cared about him, and he was growing to feel the same. At least he’d have one good friend at the mage guilds, even if she was in another guild and he’d hardly ever see her.

  He still missed his home of course, and the people in his life, but she made it a little better. He’d like to think he was decent company as well, when he wasn’t busy wallowing, which he was doing less of as time went on. It would be stupid to spite his new forced future due to an accident of birth, that wouldn’t bring back his old life. Obvious or not, that was still a hard thing for him, but Caley made that burden easier.

  So far, they hadn’t met any difficulties on the trail, or any signs of outlaws or bandits. He started to suspect that was thanks to Neal, and the bright white robes he wore that declared him as a mage and would be obvious to any bandit on the side of the road. A bandit who might at that point rethink any mischievous plans they may have hatched.

  He knew if he was a bandit, he wouldn’t bother a mage passing through.

  So the trip went, and he and Caley were almost inseparable for the last four days. It was all proper and on the friendship level. Even had he been so callow as to replace a woman he loved in a week’s time, which he wasn’t, and he still missed Celane almost every moment, Caley was a bit too young for him, even if she did have a striking pixie beauty and all the curves of a mature woman.

  Point being, sexual tension wasn’t even a thing, they were just friends from his point of view, and he was almost positive she felt the same.

  He could even admit to himself that he felt a little excitement toward the future, as the city of Highspire came into view as they crested a hill. Growing up in a small village, it was vaster than he could’ve imagined, there must’ve been tens of thousands of people in it.

  Near the center of the city, he could already make out the large castle along with the mage guild towers that dwarfed the surrounding buildings.

  The mage guilds’ buildings looked as he’d imagined, there was a large domed building in the middle of seven very tall towers. He shook his head in amusement, realizing that one of those vast towers would be housing just four people, the rune mages. Though he imagined there were plenty of servants that would keep it clean and cook their meals.

  The palace was a surprise to him, he’d never heard it described, and it was an obvious question that hadn’t come up the last week. Perhaps it wasn’t such a surprise, kings were powerful people, and they didn’t like to be upstaged. Needless to say, the castle had twisting spires that rivaled and exceeded the height of the mage towers. One spire in the center, was quite a bit higher than the rest. He imagined from up there they’d be able to see in tens of miles in every direction, and easily spy out an enemy army approaching the city.

  The castle walls must’ve been close to sixty feet high, the wall around the city itself was only about twenty-five feet high, and as they rode down the hill toward the open gate the commoners waiting in line moved to the side with cautiously neutral looks on their faces.

  That was still weird to him, being on the other side of that equation, being looked at in fear. It seemed absurd to him. He’d no more use magic to harm one of them than one of the guards would cause harm with their swords and start killing people indiscriminately. But such was his lot, the commoners feared mages. Though he wouldn’t be ready to move on for a long time, he imagined that would complicate his chances at finding a wife in the future.

  Even the guards, though not afraid, gave the three of them respectful looks and didn’t challenge them at all, as they rode into the city.

  The stables and two inns for visitors is the first thing he saw, and just past that was the market district. They dismounted and walked toward one of the stables.

  Neal said, “This is the mage stable. The horse I purchased belongs to the guilds. You may get a different one next time you ride anywhere, which will probably be at least a year. Apprentices don’t go on missions, not even easy ones.”

  He grabbed his backpack and strapped on his sword so that it hung on his left side. He’d have to draw across his body to unsheathe it, he found that position most natural for him, though he knew some preferred a back sheath. He and Caley followed Neal into the city, when stablemen took the horses off their hands. They’d get them settled in, brushed, and take off the saddles.

  There were brick and mortar stores on both sides of the street, including a smithy which made him feel rather wistful. There were also vegetable and meat vendors, some of them even making cheap meals for purchase right there on the wide street.

  He didn’t get to see the whole city of course, just right down the main road of it which led to the center, and the palace and mage guilds. There would be plenty of time for exploring as an apprentice he imagined, but in truth he felt a bit overwhelmed by all the people and the loud voices of people hawking their wares.

  Past the market district, which he’d discovered went in a few blocks in each direction, was the merchant’s section of the city. Nicer shops and houses than the common housing which was to the sides of the market district. Past that, was the noble district, and they passed between mansions with elaborate designs carved into the buildings and the walls surrounding them.

  He knew from one of Neal’s lectures on the way there, that there were several other districts. A poorer section than even the common housing district. There was also a warehouse district, which held supplies to feed a city during siege, as well as storage for merchants. The major city was at least four-square miles, two by two, and they’d passed a great many farms the last day of the trip that were all necessary to support it.

  The mage guild towers and building just grew vaster the closer they got to it. Considering for four of the guilds, just one tower could host over a hundred mages and the staff to support it. The circular domed building was much wider and longer, filled with libraries, classrooms, and the arena, but it was also only two stories, where the towers were much higher.

  He felt his stomach churn a bit, and he couldn’t help being nervous.

  Neal said, “You’re in the southernmost tower. I’ll drop you off before we head to the life tower, which is the southeast tower. The death mages live in the southwest tower. Clockwise from there, is Fire, Earth, Water, and Air.”

  That was good to know. Ironically, he also could’ve guessed, since the towers all had a rune design on the top of each of the tower’s crenellations. He could feel what each one meant, naming Rune, Death, Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Life, for any to see. More proof he might just be one of those mystics, but he pushed it out of his mind.

  The seven towers were all connected by the shorter round building that was at most thirty feet high, the ceilings for the two floors must be high. Regardless, it was shortly obvious there was no outside access to the towers, they’d need to go into the common building first. He suspected he was about to get lost a lot in his first week, as they approached the behemoth. The entrance to the building was through a large gate, and the entry room was the size of a courtyard. No doubt to accommodate full sized wagons coming in, for loading or unloading of merchandise.

  The open area led into a large hallway to the right and left, as well as straight inside the vast building. Neal explained the outer hallway was in a circle. The outer side just had the seven entrances to the tower, as well as the building entrance they’d gone in. Leading inward, there were many doorways to the classrooms, libraries, and stock rooms. The ones closest to his tower had the rune knowledge in them, and they belonged to the rune mages. The seven hallways leading inward all went to the same spot, the vast arena in the center of the building.

  Neal walked him over to the tower, leaving him with the helpful advice of asking a servant where his new master was, while he and Caley continued to the next tower. Although, he couldn’t blame the man, he’d been on a mission, and with him the whole time. Neal would hardly know where his tower master was. He found the rune on the tower door quite useful, the same one from the outer crenellations, maybe he wouldn’t be getting as lost as he’d feared.

  There were people walking around in various shades of robes, and of course he knew none of them. White for life, black for death, green for water, blue for air, red for fire, and brown for earth. There were no silver robes in sight, but then there were only four rune mages in the whole place.

  He opened up the tower door, and then walked inside.

  He didn’t see anyone at first, so took a look around his new home. The bottom level of the tower was a large living room of sorts, with plenty of places to sit and relax. There was also a vast dining room, and a fairly large kitchen. The stairs up were in the center of the tower, a spiraling staircase wrapping around the large center support column.

  The second floor were twelve rooms that were relatively bare, just a table in a couple of them. They also hummed with magic, and he suspected they were the workrooms for the rune tower. Powerful spells on them would contain any accidents to those rooms. Neal hadn’t told them anything about wielding magic, but he had passed on some rules. It was illegal for apprentices to practice casting outside of workrooms or the arena, just in case. Save a few exceptions, in a situation of self-defense and in preservation of life it was okay for him to protect himself, and in the presence of a master mage that requested he cast a spell. That last one probably wouldn’t come up much, outside of the class rooms in the center building.

  The third floor was interesting before he even entered the floor, because the stairwell was blocked off after that. With a little exploration, he discovered the third floor had twelve rooms as well, one was an office, no doubt Cassandra’s, and the other eleven were set up as bedrooms. He supposed that made a certain amount of sense, no sense in maintaining over twenty floors of tower, not when just the first three would accommodate how many rune mages there were. Heck, with four, they could add seven more before it became a problem.

  The three occupied rooms were obvious, and he stayed out of those, but spent a little time picking out his own room before unloading his backpack.

  So far, he hadn’t run into a soul, which was a little depressing, but at least he was unencumbered by luggage and had found a room to make his own. He headed back down to the large living room, sooner or later either Cassandra, Lia, or Sam would show up, from whatever they were busy doing.

  He quickly grew bored however, and it was still several hours before dinnertime, who knew when they’d be back?

  Olin’s curiosity tickled his mind, and the boredom forced him out of the chair. He left the tower and crossed the hallway. There were more runes on doorways, he wondered if it was a whole language. Regardless, he just felt it, knew, when he’d found the rune library, just as he’d known the first door he came across was a classroom, without even opening the door. He pushed the library door open, and he went inside. He couldn’t practice until Cassandra taught him to channel magic safely, but it wouldn’t harm anything to have a look at the possibilities of his magic.

  The room was fairly large, and the ceiling was twelve feet in height. The entire back wall of the large room was a recessed bookcase, holding hundreds of volumes. The rest of the room was filled with desks and chairs, no doubt to study. There was also a cache of supplies along the left side wall, filled with inkpots, quills, blank paper, scribing tools, metal scraps, and such. Runes on paper sounded incredibly dangerous, but then maybe they were just for practice?

  He walked over to the bookshelf and started to read the titles on the spines. He discovered quickly the books were split up into the six spheres of magic from top to bottom there were six shelves the length of the wall, Life, Death, Fire, Earth, Water, and Air on the bottom.

  They were further broken down, left to right, by offense, defense, and spells of convenience and utility, all simple spells of one rune. That took up almost three quarters of the shelf from left to right. After that the books were labeled as advanced, spells that combined many runes and were as a result more powerful. Again, the more advanced books were organized the same way, from left to right by offense, defense, and spells of convenience and utility.

  He suspected he wouldn’t be able to utilize any of the spells in there for a while, until he grew stronger by exercising his magic. There were no shortcuts to power. After all, his first spell had only been five runes, and the demands of the spell had almost killed him. Obviously, being a mystic was more a danger to him than a boon, for many reasons, and would remain so until he found his feet in this new world.

  The door opened and he turned. She was about his age, with shimmering long blonde hair, vivid blue eyes, and a softly beautiful heart shaped face that looked angelic. She was quite attractive for him to even take notice like that, considering he was still hung up on his Celane. Not his anymore. She had on silver robes that were tailored to be quite flattering to her body, but they were still more than conservative enough not to be scandalous. She was truly lovely, with an hour glass body, her curves neither too generous, nor too subdued, but almost perfectly average for her height as five foot six.

  He smiled tentatively, “Hi, you must be Lia. I’m Olin, the new guy.”

  Lia raised her eyebrows, and then crossed her arms, “What are you doing in our library?”

  He said playfully, “Keyword is our, in that sentence. I’m a rune mage, or apprentice. I haven’t met anyone yet though, I almost died discovering I was a mage. Neal from the life guild saved me, and brought me in. No one was in our tower, I suppose curiosity got the best of me while I was waiting for someone to show up. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Lia sighed, “Alright, but you need to talk to Cassandra first. There are rules in the library, the first of which is the books your standing at are off limits, until you attain mage level. I haven’t even seen them yet. It’s nice to meet you too, we’re a very small guild, as you probably know.”

  She seemed a little reserved, but he wasn’t too surprised by that. They’d just met, and he imagined a lot of men made an idiot of themselves in her presence. She really was just that attractive, to the point that he imagined it would be a negative for her in a lot of ways.

  “Thanks, I hadn’t looked inside any books yet. I was just figuring out how it was organized by the spines. I’d appreciate any guidance?”

  She smiled, “I can share the rules, or a meal, but apprentices aren’t allowed to instruct each other in magic. Otherwise I’d suggest a good book or two to start with. Let’s get you to Cassandra, she’s actually right next door, with me and Sam in class. She asked me to grab a book.”

  She walked over to the bookshelf, and she pulled down a book from the third shelf from the top, so a fire book.

  She smiled at him for real, which was devastating enough he actually felt guilty.

  He pushed that away though. He had no plans to act on that attraction, no matter how stunning she was. His time here would be very lonely if he managed to alienate himself by acting the rake, something he most certainly wasn’t.

  “Sorry for being so confrontational, I really am glad you’re here. It’ll be nice to get to know someone else besides Sam and our mistress.”

  He waved that away, “I’m more than a bit nervous about all this as well. I was a blacksmith just a week ago, now…”

  She nodded, “I get that. Getting thrown into one of the other guilds, you’re bound to find a friend or two there among the masses. With us rune mages it’s different, it’s like a small family. We almost have no choice, it’s either that or spend our off time alone.”

  He tilted his head, and kind of got what she was saying. You could choose your friends, but you couldn’t choose the family you were born into. With only four of them, they almost had to be a team, even if they didn’t like each other. Either that, or he could be a loner and cut off from any kind of meaningful interactions and friendships, with the way the guilds kept them mostly separate from the others. That wasn’t at all appealing to him.

  That she was acting worried about how he’d be, instead of flirting and using her beauty, or acting stuck up, really spoke well to the possibility they could form a friendship. He didn’t like manipulators or arrogant people all that much, but otherwise his bar was pretty low. He’d extend trust until it was abused, as a general rule.

 

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