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

Battle Mage: Forging New Steel

By

Donald L. Wigboldy Jr.

Copy Write January 2015

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Other books by Donald L. Wigboldy Jr.

From the Tales of Alus series:

The High King: A Tale of Alus

The Emperor’s Shadow War

Battle Mage: A Tale of Alus

Battle Mage: Winter’s Edge

Battle Mage: The Lost King

Battle Mage: Dragon Mage

Battle Mage: Dark Mage

Battle Mage: A Hero’s Welcome

Modern Tales:

Voran the Night Guardian

Standing Before Monsters

The Mermaid’s Chest

Chapter 1- Clean Slate

The capitol city of Hala remained much like it had been about four months earlier when the mage had been there for the Winter’s Edge tournament; but it felt comparatively empty despite the amount of people still out enjoying the warm air. During the wizards’ tournament, the crowds had flooded the city from nearby villages and far off lands to see the first tournament ever held with wizards showing off their magical skills on a grand scale. With other wizards there to safe guard the combatants; the magical duels had let the men and women unleash all of their skills and power in relative safety.

Sebastian had been the only mage in the competition, but he had held his own.

He hadn’t thought about those days for awhile. It felt so long ago, but his feet took him along the path towards a different destination from the one originally planned. The king had reserved rooms for him and Ashleen at one of the most expensive inns in the inner city called the Two Circles Inn; but the Black Smith’s Inn had been the place his team had stayed during the tournament and it was there that his feet led him.

Sebastian didn’t go through the front door of the Black Smith Inn, however, but continued around the side following the stables as he listened to the clanging of metal from the smithy which gave the inn its name. Entering the open double doors, the battle mage spotted a powerful looking man hammering at some glowing metal that had come from the heat of the forge to be placed on a metal anvil. A teenage boy stood holding a set of tongs to steady the smith’s target and neither of them initially noticed the shadow of the mage as he stepped inside watching the process of metal working.

After a time the glow in the metal began to fade and the smith had the boy return the piece to the fire as he wiped his forehead to remove the sweat building there. The man looked up to see the mage standing off to the side where he could watch the smith work easiest.

“Can I help you?” the big man asked causing the teen to look at the mage after settling the metal in the heat of the forge.

Sebastian gave the man a polite smile and greeted the smith, “You are Ivol, I believe, the man whose chosen profession renamed his inn. I am Sebastian Trillon and find myself here on a bit of a whim actually.”

“If you need a room, my wife Hilda is inside and runs that part of the business. If you need the work of a smith, I would need to know what it is that you want. I am guessing that you don’t need horseshoes since I don’t see a horse,” Ivol replied. The man’s beard was short and brown like the color of the hair on his head, but Sebastian noticed open patches in his beard that suggested a few lessons burned into him by the unforgiving fire.

“The king set me up in a different inn for now, but I was here during the tournament and learned of your smithy,” Sebastian began but was interrupted as the assistant’s eyes widened.

Patting the smith’s arm, the boy stated enthusiastically, “Da, that is the battle mage from the tournament, the one who defeated all those wizards before he pulled out of the competition.”

Ivol merely nodded a less impressed version of recognition as he questioned, “So what does a falcon need of me? You had a room here, I believe you said. My wife told me that you were one of the competitors after it was over with. Surely you can’t be coming back to complain about your stay after so many months.”

Shaking his head in return, Sebastian asked, “It looks like I will be stuck in Hala for a few weeks at least and I was wondering if you would allow me a place to work here?”

“A battle mage wants to work as a blacksmith?” Ivol questioned dubiously. “I’m not sure what I can teach you that would be useful. I mostly get contracted for horseshoes, axles and other parts for carts and wagons here.”

Sebastian drew out the Hollow Sword to show the weapon to the smith. “I want to figure out how to make more of these.”

Ivol took the weapon giving a low whistle of appreciation before looking the mage in the eye and said, “I’m no sword smith. This looks to be made of a higher grade steel than anything I’ve seen around here.”

“It comes from before the Cataclysm, but it was broken when I found it. Using magic I reformed the blade and made it stronger. It can hold magic inside the metal as well to help anyone who can charge it or have it charged.”

Ivol moved towards the open door looking at the sword in the stronger light as Sebastian moved slowly to join him. “That sounds impossible, but where magic comes into it, I have no knowledge at all.”

The smith looked up from the metal where no seam could be seen from putting the sword back together and he asked, “What exactly do you think I can do for you?”

“I just need a place to work and someone who can get the metals and alloys needed to create the blades for me,” Sebastian stated. “Since I am probably going to be needed for training, I just need a place where I know I can come when I have time.”

Ivol looked uncertain and glanced back at the single forge. “I don’t know...”

“I have money to pay for the time I will need here,” Sebastian added with understanding. The smith had never shared the space with anyone aside from his sons as apprentices. There was also limited space in the one man operation, so it would take more encouragement than just asking to be the man’s apprentice.

As Ivol passed the sword back to its owner, the man shook his head and said, “I guess that we can try it on a test basis. I’ve never had anyone else working with me since I trained at my master’s forge, so I am uncertain how it will work.”

Sebastian nodded and replied, “I don’t always need a forge for what I am trying to do, but I will need space and a place for the pieces I work on, of course.”

Putting out his hand to shake on the deal, Ivol nodded and said, “Well, my wife usually works out the money part of things, but I guess that we can give it a shot.”

With a content smile, the battle mage followed the smith into the inn while his son worked the forge to keep the metal they were working with at the proper temperature for later.

The Two Circles Inn was a massive five story building made of dark gray stone. Topped with battlements, it was one of Hala’s defenses as much as it was an inn. Archers could be placed on top of the building should an enemy manage to breach the outer walls of the city and continue the defense outside of the central castle. It was one of several buildings inside the inner ring created to be defensive even if that purpose was mostly forgotten by those within Hala who had become used to peace behind North Wall.

Since North Wall, the forty foot high wall which ran from Hala in the east to Raven Hurst far to the west had been finished; the capitol hadn’t seen war south of the wall. Special defenses like the fortresses within the city walls were mostly forgotten or at least ignored as peace made the people of Southwall grow a bit complacent in their country’s security.

As a battle mage, Sebastian noted the defenses on the roof and walked up to the large double doors made of glass set in gold frames. It was the first glimpse of the opulence created inside of the dark gray, stone walls. Once inside, the mage noted heavily reinforced inner doors that could be thrown into place to fortify the base of the building, since glass doors would make the fortifications useless otherwise. While his soldier side noted the doors entering the large entry room of the inn, his vision was nearly overwhelmed by the polished black and brown stones with gold highlights throughout the room. The polished tiles on the floor mirrored four massive columns running through the center of the room reinforcing the twelve foot high ceiling, which in turn was just the first bit of weight for the remaining floors above the hall.

Dozens of tables with cloths matching the floor colors with intricate patterns were uniformly placed in the center while the outer tables were made of dark, stained wood left uncovered. Sebastian noted rich wood panels attached to the outer stone walls in an attempt to make one forget the dark gray stone making up the inn.

Multiple counters lined two of the walls since this room served as check in and dining hall for the inn. Several men and women already sat at the center tables though it was still more than an hour before the normal meal time in guardian castles south of the wall. Lesser nobles and merchants alike used the luxurious inn for business when trying to impress one another for their deals. To the battle mage, that world was a mystery. He was a warrior, a soldier and sometimes a leader of missions; but important business deals involving coin beyond his simple living just didn’t make sense to such a battle mage.

At least as he faced the man behind his counter, Sebastian was dressed well. A hastily assembled outfit resembling a falcon’s dress uniform had been necessary to meet the king in his castle known as the Grimnal. Like the immortal he had rescued, Gerid; the castle and the legend had become irrevocably linked together over the millennia. After weeks stuck with just one torn set of clothing, he and Ashleen had needed to buy new clothes and now the mage suddenly felt like the garments were needed to match the opulence of this inn.

He had stayed at the Black Smith’s Inn the last time and it had felt more like him. The rooms had been nicer than those he had lived in for school and training, so having the king set him up with rooms in a palace like this seemed a bit beyond his needs.

The man behind the counter had watched him cross the floor since he had entered the gold doors. His face showed little of his thoughts for the intruder. It was the face of someone who hid his opinions behind that neutral facade for his business.

“May I help you, sir?” the man in his pristine uniform questioned the mage.

“The king has apparently placed me here for now. I am Sebastian Trillon.”

Surprise broke through that stony facade as the clerk recognized the name for more than one reason. “Falcon Trillon, the battle mage who fought in the wizards’ tournament? It is an honor to have you here, sir. I am sorry that we couldn’t have served you when you were here for the tournament.”

Shrugging, Sebastian replied easily, “The ravens set up my inn for me that time, so I had little say in where I was staying for the tournament. Now I am supposed to have a room for me and the kardorian wizard, correct?”

The clerk looked a little confused as he tried to remove the bewilderment from his face and stated, “The lady said that just one suite would do. The two rooms are connected.”

Sebastian tried not to reveal his dissatisfaction. If Ashleen had convinced them to change from separate rooms to sharing a single, even if it was a larger suite; the mage might have to have a talk with her. They had spent two weeks together in Silver World trapped together, or so they had thought since it was revealed that closer to a month had passed here in Alus.

While Ashleen had appeared not only comfortable trapped with him alone, she had often seemed to flirt with him despite their circumstances. Perhaps the girl believed that they would be trapped there forever and wanted to get closer as the only two people there, but she had been pushing towards him even before that. Since he had chosen to be with Yara, the extra attention should have become more uncomfortable for the young man; but Sebastian hated to admit that he enjoyed being with Ashleen as well. If he had met the wilder first, Bas often wondered if he would have chosen to commit himself to her instead. The fact that they were from two different countries didn’t mean that there wasn’t an attraction between them and, unlike Yara who was a healer; they were more similar in their mind sets and magic.

A key was placed on the counter and the clerk asked with a raised eyebrow, “Is there something wrong with the arrangement? The young lady seemed sure that a suite would do.”

Taking the key, Sebastian didn’t fight the man as he questioned, “Is the wizard in the room already?”

“She went up just a little while ago with several clothing bags,” the clerk answered and noted that he had no baggage. “Do you need a boy to show you to your room?”

Sebastian noted the number five hundred and ten and said, “I assume this means that I am on the fifth floor.”

The man nodded and gestured to the end of the hall opposite the entry doors. “We have what the wizards call a lift. You enter a large box room and press the button numbered five for the fifth floor to go straight up to it without having to walk all those stairs.”