Battle Mage: Forging New Steel (Tales of Alus Book 9) (25 page)

“If you had met me before Yara, would I have been your choice? Is it just that you met her first and are loyal to her? I mean, I can see love between you, but you two are quite different.”

It was his turn to breathe a sigh as he met her crystal blue eyes. He hated to admit that it was a valid question. When the mage had first met Yara, he had been a cadet and she an apprentice wizard heading to their first positions along North Wall. It was the final testing for any cadet to determine their worthiness to become a falcon in the corps.

“I don’t know that talking with you about her is exactly the best idea,” he managed a chuckle trying to put the girl off of a hard subject. “I am not trying to make you into her, if that is what you are trying to ask. You both call to me in different ways, so there is that.”

Her eyes lit up hearing him admit that he must have thought about her enough to come to that conclusion.

“I’ve offered myself to you in every way I can think of,” Ashleen said with a sigh. “You two have had sex. Is that what keeps you bound? You don’t want to be one of those men who have their way with a girl and move on?”

He thought that the question had been meant to be a joke, but as she asked it the content began to become more significant as the words came out of her mouth. “That is why throwing yourself at me doesn’t help anything,” he confessed and continued to clarify for fear that Ashleen would misunderstand his blunt statement. “It isn’t like you aren’t tempting, since you are very good looking; but being physical isn’t a guarantee, is it?”

“I guess not,” she responded quietly. “I didn’t mean to...”

Her words failed her. She had obviously bared herself to him hoping that he would find her attractive, but his response made her realize she was being too desperate. While she wanted him to say he loved her, just trying to get him to weaken and take her wasn’t exactly what she wanted in the long run. Ashleen wanted him forever like any young girl planned as a child when they hoped to grow up to marry the love of their life, when they didn’t even know what that kind of love meant.

Waving off her worries as he tried to leave her at ease, Sebastian said, “It’s alright. I didn’t exactly mind the show, but if you want me to figure out if I love you; that has never been the problem.”

Again she looked expectant.

“I like having you around. I just don’t know if this...,” his words failed him as hers had for her. Discussing feelings like these was difficult.

“Maybe we should stop for now,” Ashleen said giggling at his discomfort echoing her own. “I’ll try to behave, but just remember I am only holding back because you asked me.”

Nodding, he replied offering her a hand up to get ready to meet the others for dinner, in spite of both of them having just eaten a large snack.

Sebastian stood before Raven Leros and Falconi Brelan at attention feeling more nervous than he had been in a long time. While he doubted there would be a true punishment from the leaders of his corps, the fact that he had no idea what they thought of the incident at yesterday’s practice left the future open for interpretation.

Leros sat at his desk while Brelan stood to his left looking stern. She was quite a bit younger than the raven with dark brown, mid length hair. The woman’s uniform might have shown a bit of her femininity, if not for the black covering her from boots to shoulders. While the other falconi, Neven, had been older and larger; the woman appeared no less of a force before him and she was not amused.

“I sometimes forget how young you are,” the raven said steepling his fingers before him where they touched the white whiskers on his chin. “You’ve been a falcon for about a year and at twenty that might make you a little older than some. Apparently you started as a cadet a little late as well, but your aptitude for the sword and magic doesn’t necessarily make you as wise as a falcon twice your age.

“You led well from reports by Mecklin and Frell as well as what I have heard from the wizards, but here we are.”

In the pause, Falconi Brelan stated with disdain, “We are told that you stormed out of training and told them that they could learn magic for themselves.”

Waiting a moment as he inferred that it was his time to respond, Sebastian answered, “I told them they could all work together to figure out any kind of magic for themselves, then I would come back and teach.”

“A teacher doesn’t do that!” Brelan complained angrily. “It is your job to deal with their attitudes and help them learn so we can improve the corps.”

As the falcon stood quietly following the woman’s angry words, Raven Leros added into the exchange calmly, “You didn’t have to go back to teaching until you felt recovered from your injuries. Did you return too soon or is this something else? You are usually level headed from what I understand.”

Sebastian considered letting injuries from the accident be his excuse as he had jokingly told Mecklin and Frell, but the young mage didn’t feel a need to lie. “I am recovered and could probably have returned to teaching a day or two sooner.”

Brelan looked ready to lay into him again, but Leros spoke first and his voice held a little surprise, “So your injuries weren’t the problem, then what is the problem? You were ordered to teach. It was your job to do it properly.”

Wanting to sigh in aggravation, the young man knew the raven wasn’t being unreasonable in his request for an answer and, as the leader of the corps, it was reasonable for his subordinate to give a straight answer.

“I am not the teacher type. I discover magic in the field or by researching it, not by wasting time going over the basics for battle mages who only give me respect when they think it will get me to impart my newest spells. Maybe when I am older and have nothing new left in me, then maybe I will be ready to retire to White Hall or somewhere you choose and learn to teach.”

“Is that the real reason you said what you did?” Leros asked again remaining calm, even as the falconi seemed to simmer beside him.

“Falcon Jeriah also reminds me of those wizards who enjoyed bullying the cadets at White Hall. I see less of them trying to look down on me and those who now know the new magic at least, but when I see it among my peers it doesn’t help my temper either,” Sebastian confessed.

“That doesn’t give you the right...!” Falconi Brelan started working up to a full dressing down of the young man in front of them. Raven Leros held up his hand settling the woman and moving her to silence with the gesture.

Releasing his breath in a slow calm way, the older man began, “You are a falcon now and there will be times where you will have to get along with those you don’t like. I am sure that there were times in the field last year or perhaps even on your journey aboard the Sea Dragon where you had to work with difficult people.

“Why is doing the same with those studying under you any different?”

“It isn’t just the bullying attitude. I get sick and tired of everyone treating me like some servant around to order to give them new magic. Even as I let them see what a Hollow Sword can do for them in the future, they turn on me demanding to know about the rune magic.

“I have had mages watching a wizard use his spells and look at me immediately expecting me to convert it into mage magic for them like I am some decoder for them. It wears at me. Even you falconi and ravens sit there expecting me to do everything for you.

“When is the last time someone else took the time to figure out something new?”

Not even letting himself get worked up, Sebastian could see his complaints rubbed the falconi the wrong way making her more furious. Leros waited for her to vent and Brelan did so quickly, “Unfortunately it isn’t so easy for the rest of us! You have a gift and responsibility to your fellow mages to pass on what you learn like Raven Hurst did in his time.”

“Do I?” Sebastian asked with the lift of an eyebrow at her demands. “There are things battle mages, other than me, seem incapable of learning anyway. Do I waste my time on those who can’t grasp a spell? Is it my responsibility to teach those who just don’t understand and might never comprehend what I do?

“Hurst led those who had little magic to become something other than soldiers, and that is great. We aren’t wizards and we learn differently, but why is it your right to learn what I know every time?

“There is magic and skills that I dare not teach you because you aren’t ready. You might never be, but there are other things I can do to make the corps much more powerful. Unfortunately, you want me to waste my time teaching when Mecklin and Frell have it in hand.”

Brelan looked ready to explode. She felt that he was too young to be speaking down to her or Raven Leros, the most elite mage of their time. Sebastian wondered how he had lost his ability to be diplomatic, but then he realized that he wanted this fight. He wanted his voice heard even if he got into trouble for it.

“Is it just the Hollow Swords?” the white haired man in black asked as he pushed back his chair to stand.

Pushing his magic into the protection runes on his left arm, Sebastian made them expand away from his skin creating a glowing orange shield. He released the power and they returned to ink on his arm. Adding magic to the black oval on his right arm created a larger black hole appearing like the antithesis of a portal gate.

The rune lifted and expanded creating something more like the darkness shields. He had let Ashleen throw one of the swords he had been using as a template into the black hole and drawn it back out by placing his hand near the floating oval. For this demonstration, the battle mage did the same with his right hand. In a fight he would need the sword in his main hand, so using the hand the rune was on wouldn’t work; but extended into the air either hand could use the black portal.

Sword in hand one moment, Sebastian replaced it into the darkness and released his magic bringing the tattoo back onto his arm.

With a look of shock on her face, Brelan lost her anger at the sight of his newest discoveries. Even Raven Leros couldn’t hide his surprise and he asked, “This is the new magic everyone was demanding to understand?”

“The shield rune magic was, yes. It has protected me in the past from weapons and never reacted that way. Maybe it was because magic was attacking me or maybe it just took this long for the runes to respond to the instinct of magic, but I checked with Wizard Maura who is researching them also.

“Using my healing magic I figured out that the runes tie into not only the life inside of us, but with mages and wizards it is tied to our magic also.

“I am able to replicate the runes I know and transfer them. Using that skill, I traded with Maura. She has a protective rune now and I copied her storage rune. I haven’t tried to copy Mecklin’s tattoo and I haven’t seen Drayden to try with his either.”

“So you can create or at least recreate the runes they gifted to you?” Leros asked for clarification.

“I can only create what they gave me at this point. Since I don’t know the basic characters or creation of the runes, I can only copy what I have.”

Brelan remarked curiously, “They have been talking about a group of nomads roaming the eastern plains that use runes similar to these. I wonder if there is any connection to the sea folk in their past.

“Rumors of druids working with the tribesmen have been around forever, though I’ve never heard of anyone running into one. Maybe they have druids making their warriors stronger as well.”

Leros replied, “Tattoos are less popular in Southwall, but runes like these have been found after skirmishes on the plains folk, especially those furthest east.

“You said you can copy the runes and have transferred them already?”

Nodding, Sebastian asked, “Did you want me to transfer either one to you, sir?”

“Not for now,” the raven said with the shake of his head and a smile. “This is one of the types of magic you plan to study? This is why you don’t feel you have time to teach?”

Sebastian nodded.

With a shake of his head, the older man stated, “You complain about teaching and yet you learned this during the class. Maybe teaching can benefit you more than you realize.”

Giving a noncommittal grunt, the younger man replied, “I’ve learned things from training before and this was just a demonstration of the sword’s ability that brought out the reaction. While I am not saying that it is impossible to learn while teaching, it doesn’t lend itself to discovering new magic or smithing.”

“Well, I guess we can argue about this all day, but your heart is not into it. We should be seeing the return of the last of your companions waiting for you in New Harbor soon. I will look into what I think would be best for you until then.

“For now, work with the wizards to find the metal you need for the swords and discover anything else you can about the runes, I guess.”

Falconi Brelan complained, “You aren’t even going to punish him, raven?”

“Technically there is nothing to punish. He could have been on bed rest anyway. If he isn’t a good teacher, then it is useless to try and make him one. We will make sure to keep other mages he can work with near him to pass on whatever else he discovers and for now that will be enough.

“Work with the wizards and anyone that might make the swords happen. That will be your duty for now,” the raven said with a dismissive wave to the younger man.