Nature Mage (49 page)

“So...how are you feeling?” the Chancellor asked.

“All right thanks, Hephistole,” Gaspi answered. “How about you?”

“I’m pleased to say I’m very much recovered,” Hephistole answered. “And no small thanks goes to you, my young friend.”

Gaspi flushed with pleasure at being called Hephistole’s friend. “It was nothing,” he said, somewhat abashed.

“Nothing? I hardly think so,” Hephistole countered. “That was quick thinking, moving the field of negation over the exit, and very brave letting yourself fall like that, and equally resourceful bringing the best possible aid. If it wasn’t for you, and the help of Voltan and your impressive warrior friend Taurnil, I dare say I would not be here right now.”

Gaspi knew Hephistole was referring to the transporter the Warg had used to escape from Hephistole’s office, a transporter built into the same device used to block their magic. “Where do you think it would have taken you?” Gaspi asked, uncertain as to how much information he was going to be given.

“Where I would have gone is less important than who was trying to take me there, Gaspi,” Hephistole said, suddenly grave. “I’ve asked you here today, as I’ve chosen to place my trust in you.” He held Gaspi’s eye. “Voltan here thinks I should do otherwise; not because you are untrustworthy, but because you are still in training. I have decided on this occasion to ignore his counsel. But before I carry on, I need to ask you if you are willing to hear what I have to say.”

Eager for information, Gaspi opened his mouth to respond. “Don’t answer too quickly, Gaspi!” Hephistole admonished. “This is the most serious of business, and even hearing what I have to say will place an enormous burden on your shoulders. I think that the moment of this revelation is inevitable, but the timing is not. The choice is yours.”

Gaspi sat silently, looking from the Chancellor’s earnest face to Voltan’s stern one. He forced himself to think seriously about what Hephistole had said. Would he want to hear something that would make everything more intense, that would put pressure on him and maybe on his friends, maybe even place them in more danger? Maybe he could just enjoy the summer away from college before classes started again, hang out with Emea and Taurnil and Lydia, go hunting with Jonn, have some romantic time with Emmy. The thought was enticing, but on the other hand here was a chance to really find out what was going on, and to be involved in the heart of things. It wasn’t just his curiosity that drove him, but also an instinctive feeling that his being a Nature Mage was something of consequence, and that things would work out better if he was involved.

Gaspi made his decision. “I want to know,” he said, firmly.

“I’m glad that’s your decision,” Hephistole said, “and in turn I will do you the service of telling you everything.” He must have seen a flicker of cynicism in Gaspi’s face. “Yes, everything!” he said, with a wry smile.

Gaspi didn’t say anything, not wanting to give Hephistole a chance to change his mind. When the Chancellor was sure Gaspi wasn’t going to say anything else, he began to speak again.

“Shirukai Sestin was my mentor,” he began. “He was a strange and reclusive man, and a very powerful Mage. He specialised in combining healing with neuromancy, and his experiments took him down a dark road. He was obsessed with exploring the effects of pain on another being, while subduing their ability to respond.”

Hephistole’s gaze took on a faraway look. “I was dreadfully impressed by him and not a little scared of him too, and even when I saw a glimpse of who he really was I held my peace, to my great shame.” He fell silent for several moments, brooding over some unspoken detail, but then he pushed himself up straight, shook his head like a dog getting out of a river, and carried on.

“It happened in my third year as a Mage, when I was on the cusp of becoming a fully fledged magician in my own right. A young guard had been missing for several days, and would probably never have been found if he hadn’t married a wife with latent magical talents. She was distraught when she came to us, saying that she could sense that her beloved husband was in unendurable agony and was reaching out to her. His pain must have awoken an empathic ability in her, and she could sense which direction he was in and how far away he was. She insisted that he was somewhere within the college campus.

Several of us went with her as she followed her instinct, searching through the campus for her lost husband. The search led us ultimately to the door of Shirukai’s pyramid, a place that few magicians were ever allowed to enter. We forced our way past the door, and found him performing unspeakable magical experiments on the guard.

We tried to capture him, but Shirukai was more than a match for even several magicians together, and fought his way past us, killing one of his fellow teachers in the process. He escaped, and as there was no alert for him in the campus, he was able to leave without being stopped. He fled the city and the country, and as far as we know was never seen again.

The guard was so far gone he wasn’t aware of who or where he was, chained to the wall like an animal.” Hephistole paused, his face fractured by lines of sorrow. “We never found a way to heal him,” Hephistole said. “Sestin had experimented on him, pushing the limits of human pain and then healing him over and over, controlling his mind all the while so he couldn’t take back any kind of control. We looked after him in the infirmary for a several years, but something in him was broken beyond recovery, and he eventually just stopped living.”

“That’s terrible,” Gaspi said, deeply shocked by what he’d heard.

“That guard’s fate is a source of great shame for me, Gaspi,” Hephistole said heavily, his long face suddenly childlike and filled with sadness.

“But why?” Gaspi asked gently. Someone else Gaspi’s age might have felt uncomfortable with an adult showing such vulnerability, but growing up with Jonn as his guardian had taught him early on that some adults were burdened by terrible regrets.

“Ah, Gaspi,” Hephistole said with a brief smile, “your compassion becomes you. I am old enough to know that I cannot take full responsibility for what happened, but when Sestin was my mentor he involved me in an experiment that caused me great personal distress. It was probably the beginnings of his exploration into torture. I wasn’t quite sure what I’d seen, but it was enough to stop me going to him for mentoring, and it troubled me for months. If I had said something, then perhaps he could have been stopped before he did any real harm.

But there’s no real value in self-questioning at this point,” Hephistole said more briskly, rousing himself from his uncomfortable reverie. “We closed up his pyramid after Shirukai fled. He was a powerful Mage, and we couldn’t undo or even understand all of the enchantments he’d placed on it, so it was never taken down. We removed many artefacts, some of which had very dark purposes, and sealed it up for good - or so we believed. No-one has ever liked working near it ever since, as there is some fell enchantment about the place, so that part of the campus has remained largely unoccupied even to this day.”

“I know what you mean,” Gaspi said. “We explored around there one time soon after we got here, and there was no-one to be seen. Lydia leaned on the wall around the pyramid, and got ill.”

“That’s very interesting,” Hephistole said. “Voltan, perhaps you can have a talk with young Lydia, and see if we can learn something.  She may have some kind of empathic ability.” Voltan nodded in agreement.

“As you know,” the Chancellor continued, “that seal was broken during the attack last week, and a secondary force of Wargs was transported directly into it from somewhere else. I have no idea how Sestin has managed to preserve his life, or how he managed to transport the Wargs over any kind of distance, but we can only assume that he is still very much alive, and even more powerful than he was before. We also have to accept that, for some reason, he has decided to make war against us.”

Gaspi tried to weigh up this news, as Hephistole lapsed into silence. Hephistole was right; telling him this placed a shadow over everything.

“How can we stop him doing it again?” he asked. “Couldn’t he just transport some more Wargs into the pyramid? Or demons?” The thought was very disturbing.

“Good question,” Hephistole said, but with none of his usual enthusiasm for such a thing. “First of all, I don’t believe the demons can be transported, as they are not material in any true sense. None came through with the Wargs, and we were aware of their growing activity for the last year, as they found and destroyed people with magical talent. At this point Voltan believes, and I agree with him, that the demons needed to drain those poor weather workers and Healers in order to gain strength for the attack. It appears that this is how they feed, and gain power. If this is so, you can probably see why a city of magicians would be a powerful lure.

Secondly, we had been complacent about Shirukai’s pyramid, as no-one believed him to still be alive. We have already found and destroyed the device he used to transport the Wargs. It was built into the floor of his study, something we failed to identify all those years ago after he fled. I am fairly certain that he cannot use the pyramid again.”

Gaspi breathed out a sigh of relief. “What do you think he wants? And I don’t mean to sound rude, but what do you think I can do to help?” Gaspi asked.

Hephistole ran a long-fingered hand down his face. “I wish we knew, Gaspi, I wish we knew. But we have to be on the alert now. We will be enchanting weapons throughout the summer, recruiting and training new guards, and preparing all our Mages for combat. I will be doing what I can to discover more, but for now we have to do everything we can to be ready. As for what you can do...we’ve decided to disband your class. You’re all at about the level we’d do that anyway, and I think the student’s parents will want to spend some time with their children. We’re sending all the first years home for a couple of months, so you can go home and rest for a while with your friends, and come back ready to study again next year as a journeyman Mage. I’m including you in this because it seems that destiny has brought you to us at a time when we need you most, and I’m not foolish enough to ignore that. Something tells me you will have a very important part to play in all this before long.”

“But don’t you need me here, enchanting weapons?” Gaspi asked. He didn’t want to stay when his friends would be going back to Aemon’s Reach, but if it was necessary then he’d do what he could to help.

“No, Gaspi,” Hephistole said, with a warm smile. “You’ve done more than enough, and we have plenty of magicians who can enchant.”

“About me having an important role in all this...I’m not really sure that can be right,” Gaspi said, pulling a wry face.

“What makes you say that?” Hephistole asked, looking genuinely surprised.

“Well, I nearly died, didn’t I?” Gaspi said, expressing something that had been quietly bothering him since the attack. “There were four of them, and I only killed two of them before the other two got me. If Taurnil hadn’t come along when he did, I’d have been a goner!”

Voltan barked out a laugh, and leaned forward in his chair. “Gaspi - it took several Mages to take down a single one of those demons. The fact that you managed to deal with two of them is amazing. And the weapon you produced is so powerful that Taurnil managed to defeat the other two. The two of you together are a force to be reckoned with!” Voltan leaned back in his chair. Gaspi felt a little encouraged; praise from Voltan was rare.

“Gaspi, I think you greatly underestimate your part in last week’s events,” Hephistole said. “If you hadn’t been so resourceful, I’d probably be suffering Shirukai Sestin’s cruel ministrations as we speak.” Hephistole didn’t quite shudder at the thought, but he looked like he wanted to. “In short, Gaspi, Shirukai’s mission failed because of you, and I owe you my life.”

“But I owe Taurnil my life,” Gaspi said, “and we probably all saved each other at some point during the fight. I really didn’t do anything more special than anyone else.”

Hephistole smiled from ear to ear. “I should have known you’d see it that way,” he said. “If I thought it was false modesty I’d have to chastise you, but I think you mean exactly what you say. I happen to think you did something pretty remarkable, and so does Voltan, but we won’t force our opinions on you any longer. Modesty is a strong quality.”

Gaspi flushed, but didn’t bother with any further denials. “So, I can go back home for the summer?” he asked.

“Yes, Gaspi, you can go back home,” Hephistole said. “Whatever Sestin’s reasons are for trying to capture me, I think it’s fair to say he’s had a major setback. He has lost the advantage of surprise, and knows that we are now aware of both his existence and some of his plans, and he can no longer use the pyramid. On top of that, we’ve destroyed the force he sent to us. The demons, at least, will have cost him a lot of energy to control, and he’ll no doubt be licking his wounds for a while. So yes; go home, and enjoy the summer with your friends!” Hephistole beamed a beneficent smile at him, and Gaspi was surprised to see something more reserved, but similar, on Voltan’s face.

“Well done, Gaspi,” Voltan said, his tight smile warming up his normally stern face. “I’m proud of what you’ve done this year.”

Gaspi was taken aback by this open praise from his normally reticent mentor.

“Thanks,” he said with a smile of his own. “I’ll get going, then.”

He walked over to the transporter and stepped onto it, turning back to face the two magicians, his stern mentor and the enigmatic Hephistole. “See you, then - Voltan, Heppy,” he said with a grin, which was answered by an even broader grin than his own from Hephistole. Speaking the word of command, he was transported out of the office.

Chapter 37

It was quite a large group that set out from Helioport. Jonn had been given leave for the summer months to accompany Gaspi, Taurnil and Emea on their trip home. Roland and his large family of gypsies were not due to visit until the next year of college began, and Lydia had decided months previously that she would go back with Taurnil to Aemon’s Reach when class was eventually disbanded. Taurnil’s folks and Emea’s Ma were travelling back with them too, and so all in all there were eight of them setting off on the long journey back to the mountains.