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Seth
Where am I? The spellwarrior had followed his mother from the tournament tent well past the castle grounds in the Pinnacle District of the capitol before she had stopped on a seemingly empty street. Not that such a thing was unusual with the district’s primarily Chaotic population partying in the castle courtyard to honor their god. When he finally caught up with her, however, it was not to find Ruby Midas in a talkative mood, which was certainly unusual. Without a word, she had sent him to the middle of some frosty hills only the gods knew where in only an instant. Seth bitterly considered this dangerous propensity for sending people away in portals without warning, remembering this was how he first discovered the dangers of Lightning Ridge. He sighed. This is why nobody likes you, mum.
He didn’t get to spend much longer than a few minutes pondering his current predicament before Sam seemed to materialize from thin air in front of him. She looked better than she had at the end of the tournament, which was a source of some relief. In fact, she looked jittery, maybe even elated.
“What has you in such a good mood?” he asked, a little grumpily.
“We’re finally about to go on an actual mission for the Order!” she chirped excitedly. “I’ve been waiting ages for this!”
Spellwarrior business now? “Well, to be fair, I thought I was up to something more important.”
“Well, we’re already here, so there’s nothing we can do about that now! My clan seems to need your help, and you might be the only accredited spellwarrior around for miles!” Sam said with a weak smile.
Seth scanned the surrounding hills once more as her words clicked with him. The Desmond Clan mostly settled Resta’s northern foothills, which meant he hadn’t been sent as far away as he thought.
“Well, at least she didn’t send me to Heron,” Seth grumbled before turning back to his apprentice. “You already seem to know more about this mission than I do. Did my mum talk to you, at least?”
Sam’s eyes widened. “The Guardian of the Clearwater is your mother?”
I hate that damned name! Seth thought as he snapped, “Focus!”
“Okay! Well, she didn’t say much. She only said that the next step of my training would take place where it began. That would be my village, Ridge!”
Seth shook his head and sighed, “Why would the mighty Desmond Clan need the help of someone who spent most of his time as an actual peacekeeper in a coma?”
Sam shrugged. “Maybe their problem is magical? We’re not really known for that. Even when our people were fighting the Pyrisian occupation, ours was the only house that fought back without magic.”
Seth raised his eyebrow as he considered this. “I guess that makes me the closest thing they have to an expert. Do you know how to get there from here?”
In answer to Seth’s question, Sam merely pointed toward the sun and proceeded to lead him through the snowy country without preamble. The trip was filled with speculation of the problem that they had come to solve, but Seth was barely invested in the conversation. What concerned him most was why Ruby would try to distract him with this mission in the first place. As a devoted Chaotic, she had to know better than to get between him and their god’s will and as her cousin Karian’s subordinate, she had to know full well that he had the Hem Order’s blessing to set aside his usual duties for this divine pursuit. As it was, he gave noncommittal answers to Sam’s questions and held back the urge to warn her not to be so excited about a mission concerning her clan. I don’t have the heart to deflate her enthusiasm just yet.
When they arrived in Ridge, they found the lone gate through its thick log walls closed. This seemed to unnerve Sam a little, but when she introduced herself and the Hem Academy representative following her, the Desmonds opened the gate to let them through. Once inside, he found a scene that revealed all of the stereotypes of the Desmonds to be true. Warriors drilled with spears in the street just ahead, various stalls dealing in armor, furs, and weapons seemed to line every walkway, and the children at play all seemed to be armed with sticks with which they practiced their swordplay. Well, that explains why Sam’s already so skilled with her spear.
“Have you been on a hunt before?” Seth suddenly asked her out of curiosity.
“Well yeah,” Sam replied matter-of-factly. “Loads of times! It’d be embarrassing if I hadn’t by my age. Haven’t you?”
Holy shit! “Yeah, but I was 16 my first time. You Desmonds are pretty cool.”
“Well, hopefully I can help us to become a lot cooler when I show them what a Desmond can do as a spellwarrior!”
Seth nodded in approval of Sam’s words, but his eyes had already been drawn by a shopfront with an unusual decoration above its door. There, the head of a maulan had been pinned with its mouth hanging wide open. As he stared into the creature’s horrible fangs, he flashed back to the night before his coma with a chill. He wandered wordlessly toward this shop and found what appeared to be a tannery within. But instead of animal hides stretched across its tanning racks, he found the flesh of several maulans up there. Standing beneath them was a stringy old man who busily carved into a maulan carcass right in the middle of the store. He gazed at the dark hides in wonder as he walked up to the old man, who seemed to repel him with a warding gesture.
“You don’t want any of these hides, young man,” he grunted without looking up from the dead maulan. “These aren’t for clothes.”
Seth shook his head softly and asked, “What are they for?”
“The smiths love this stuff,” the tanner said as he finally looked Seth in the eyes with a grin. “Back in the wave of death, they found that when these creatures lose their skin to petrification, what is left makes a desirable substitute for coal.”
“Why?”
“They say that petrified maulan skin is what they used to make all of the magical weapons out there,” the old man said with a shrug. “I don’t know how much of the rumors to believe, though. All I know is that traders are very generous with people they find with this stuff. The clan’s been killing loads of these creatures lately, so business in the village is sure to pick up soon!”
That doesn’t sound unlike what we’re trying to do with these treasures. “I think I do want one, then. Having this sort of material could come in handy.”
“Why? Are you some sort of spellwarrior?”
“He is the exact sort!” Sam added as she walked up to the counter from behind.
The old man’s eyes gleamed as he looked from the new arrival to Seth. “Is that true?”
Seth nodded and the tanner said, “You can have any hide you wish without charge if you’ll use your magic to help speed up the petrification process for the rest of my stock. I’m sure there are plenty others out there who could use these!”
This was an easy offer to take, even though he had to rack his brains to remember how to do the petrification spell he would need. “Rakwa mula!”
With this simple incantation and a moment of deep concentration, all of the black hides on the racks had turned to stone. Though he had to chisel it from the tanning rack, the tanner was happy to give him the largest and thickest of the maulan hides to the spellwarrior in gratitude. Then, using the hilt of his blade, Seth proceeded break the hide into chunks and bag them up. Destroying this shadow of maulan life was extremely cathartic, which is why Seth found himself in a good mood when he handed his new acquisition to Sam.
“Since you’re only supposed to be shadowing me, you can carry this around,” he said cheerfully.
Sam took the bag with an expression of distaste but no argument. However, something that Seth had said seemed to light up the old man’s eyes once more. “I thought I recognized you! You’re that girl who left to go study at Hem Academy, right?”
With a look of surprise, Sam responded. “I am! I never thought I’d be home so soon, but I think my apprenticeship is going well!”
The look of recognition quickly transformed into one of sadness. “I was sorry to hear about your family. May your master give you strength.”
Seth’s eyes whipped toward Sam and found shock in her face. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Oh, you didn’t hear yet?” The old man stroked his beard contemplatively. “There’s been a coven of blood mages squatting in the ruins of old Fort Ridge and kidnapping people from the village. They were picking off the hunters out on the range before, but they’ve grown so bold as to empty your house of its inhabitants in the middle of a party to honor the festival. They’re the reason our clan reached out to Hem Academy for help!”
Seth could sense the shock making Sam numb, making him worry that if he didn’t take control of this situation quickly, she might make a desperate mistake.
“Where can I find them?” he growled.
***
When Seth and Sam reached the foot of the hill leading up to the ruined tower where the blood mages were rumored to be, he paused only to check on Sam. She hadn’t said a word since they left the tannery, but strode on in single-minded focus. She didn’t even stop when he did, but continued her climb with a purpose. Fearing that he would need to lead this angry charge to protect his apprentice, he jogged until he overtook her again. I guess we’re going in hard.
Seth kicked in the door without breaking his gait and walked into the center of a room full of people garbed in hooded robes dipped in scarlet. He counted them as they began to run around in alarm. Some scattered in fear while others banded together defensively, at least thirty in all. If there was ever a time to feel afraid, this should have been it. But something in him drove him on with nothing but a sense of anticipation. It wasn’t just righteous indignation, but an unusual sense of certainty that he was doing the right thing. Is Chaos watching me right now?
He scanned the room and watched the mages scurrying around with what felt like a smirk growing on his face. This confidence that didn’t feel like his own only took a slight hit when the first of them finally confronted him.
“Do you realize who you have just trespassed upon?” a tall man with black hair and a long, waxed beard snarled in shock.
“Of course,” Seth said, feeling almost giddy as he did so. He raised the emblematic cherrywood seal of his order and declared. “Look at the damned badge! Do you think anyone carrying one of these would be stupid enough to barge into these decrepit ruins if I didn’t know full well what bloodsucking filth was inhabiting it?”
The blood mage seemed to regard Seth with a look of interest. “Interesting. Even a peacekeeper would know better than to assail an entire coven alone but for someone who has yet to to unlock her magic!”
“Shut up!” Sam shouted for the first time since the village. “What have you done with my family?”
Everyone in the room seemed to laugh at that moment. When the man who seemed to be their leader,replied, it was with a whoop of amusement, then “Oh, I’ve heard of you! The first Desmond to become a Hem Academy apprentice, right? Well, I don’t think you want to know the answer to that question, dear girl. Suffice it to say that my own apprentice is nearly done with them!”
“Pyris amul groz! Pyris amul groz!”
Seth threw two stars in rapid succession that seemed to grow as they flew past the blood mage. Although they collided with harmlessly with the stone wall behind him, the effect of the spell seemed to shut everyone up anyway.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, then!” Seth shouted furiously. “You’re all going to get on the damned ground and stay there until we can subdue you, or fucking die!”
“Please resist!” Sam added in equal rage.
The blood mage master glanced at the walls where the black flames were slowly flickering away. “I sense the favor of Ragos in your magic, young ‘peacekeeper.’ Clearly, resisting you wouldn’t be worth the risk to our lives.”
“Well, I did just win a tournament in his honor,” Seth said with a scowl. “So, I am absolutely the wrong person to test today. If you understand this, then surrender!”
“Fortunately, I don’t see the need to choose between a fight and surrender,” the blood mage master said before turning to one of his cohorts. “Fetch my apprentice.”
“I am already here.”
Seth looked up to the balcony from which the new voice had originated and saw a profoundly familiar face under yet another red hood. He found himself looking at Gyanda, the youngest son of Karian and Matilda Maloran. He remembered that Gyanda was once a student at Hem Academy as well, but was expelled for fighting another student. He didn’t know him well at school because they were many grade levels apart. But from what he had seen at family gatherings, Seth understood that this man ate, drank, and breathed magic.
“Stay close,” Seth said warningly to Sam. “If this guy’s their trump card, we’re going to be in trouble.”
In truth, Seth knew that Gyanda was nothing special in a physical confrontation, so he was already thinking of a way to close the distance between them when the master blood mage flicked his wrist in Gyanda’s direction. As a result, a gash seemed to open up on his forehead and blood began to trickle across his face.
“What are you doing?” Sam asked, somehow still scandalized on this strange blood mage’s behalf.
“Fetching my trump card,” the master said with a smirk. “Have you ever heard of the Demon Knight?”
Seth, who had not taken his eyes off his distant cousin, watched as Gyanda’s robes began to melt away and reform into a dark plate armor with horns on the helmet that gave him the appearance of a maulan. The Demon Knight growled lustily as he cracked his neck.
“Nothing better than the taste of blood.”
“Gyanda, what the hell’s wrong with you?”
The only answer the Demon Knight gave was to jump off the balcony, materializing a blood-soaked black sword that seemed nearly as long as Seth was tall. The spellwarrior nearly dodged the massive downward stroke that he had thrown on the way down. Seth swung ribbons of flame each of his hands in a warding gesture that seemed to prevent his foe from getting any closer. Okay, scratch that. Do NOT let him get close!
“I am Garanda! Champion of Maula! We were fated to cross blades, Midas! Revel in this miracle that will end in death!”
“The fuck?” Seth said with raised eyebrows. If he’s going to change his name, why make it so similar?
“Brandish the wolf’s fang!” The knight roared. “You must live up to your predecessor’s legacy now or I shall redeem the treachery of mine!”
“You’re out of luck!” Seth retorted. “I don’t carry Nicholai’s sword around! Do you have any idea how heavy that damned thing is?” He glanced at the Demon Knight’s sword and added, “Well of course that doesn’t matter to a monster like you. But I think I’m going to stick with my own sword if you don’t mind. I’m the champion here, not Nicholai!”
Garanda let out a sigh and shook his head in disappointment. “Very well, then.”
Without any further warning, the Demon Knight lunged at Seth with a vertical swing of his blade, which Seth was quick to sidestep. But that wasn’t the end of it; just then, he tilted the blade sideways and swung it horizontally at his legs. Although Seth was quick enough to jump over the attack, he stumbled backward on landing from the hasty jump. Before he could strike again, however, Seth retaliated with the shadow claw spell that Father Maximus had taught him. As he swung his blade at full force, the Demon Knight was blasted back as his magic once again manifested with more power than usual. Is this how Chaos blesses everyone who wins the RGT?
“Seth! They’re getting away!” Sam suddenly shouted.
Of course they are, Seth thought as he looked up to see the blood mages indeed taking advantage of the distraction that Garanda provided to flee. “Let them go! We don’t have time to chase them all down! At least they won’t be sticking around your village anymore!”
Sam looked like she was about to argue, but Garanda stood up from Seth’s attack just then. With a roar, he charged toward Seth with his blade raised. Curiously, he didn’t seem to show a lot of regard for his fellow blood mages. Whenever one of them crossed his path, he cleaved through them as if he was swatting a fly. Before he closed the distance the shadow claw had created between the two combatants, Garanda had casually killed eight of his comrades.
“Garanda! Stop!” The master blood mage shouted in a scandalized tone. “We’re all on the same side! Focus on the enemy!”
Seemingly to emphasize the fact that he wasn’t listening to the other blood mages, Garanda swung his sword in a wider arc to slay a woman who had wisely jumped out of his path. Scarcely believing his sudden urge to protect the blood mages, Seth threw another black flame star in an attempt to stop the Demon Knight in his tracks. The enhanced spell spun toward Garanda’s chest, but was blocked by his massive sword, soaked with blood. The “blades” of the star melted through the sword, sending more than half of its blade clattering to the ground.
The Demon Knight threw his sword to the ground with a growl of disgust. He then conjured another weapon in his hands: a battle chain with spikes in each of its thick black links. Suddenly, the feeling of confidence he had felt since arriving seemed to make sense. He didn’t recognize this unusual weapon, but he could sense that this was what he had come for. He had to get this chain out of Garanda’s hands without damaging it. But to get his own hands on it would be tricky with those spikes.
Seth tried lighting the floor beneath his foe ablaze, hoping that a little fire beneath his greaves would cause him to drop the weapon. Instead, the demon knight only laughed mirthlessly and walked through the fire. So, black flames seemed to work while ordinary fire didn’t work. This could only mean that he feared the shadow aspect of his magic more than the flames. Seth shook his head in frustration, knowing that this would limit to him to his two most powerful spells, which would absolutely threaten the chain.
Maybe it doesn’t have to be shadows, just anything besides fire! Remembering some of the spells he watched Maya perform, Seth decided that a deluge of water is what he needed.
“Akis boltane!”
The tip of Seth’s sword spouted a stream of water that seemed to grow to proportions that even the person he knew to have mastered this spell could never have managed. The water blasted Garanda off his feet once more, and fortunately caused him to lose his grip on the chain.
“Yes!” Seth cried as he leapt to grab the end of the chain before his magic could wash it away. The spikes dug into his hands as he reeled in in closer. With the safe end enclosed within his palms, Seth watched as Garanda got up once more with an even more furious roar. The Champion of Chaos began to consider using this chain to hold him off. He did have some training with even this obscure sort of weapon at the academy after all. But before another move could be made by either, the Demon Knight’s armor suddenly vanished. Moments later, Gyanda stood before him once more in his blood mage cloak, his eyes fluttering with exhaustion. The master blood mage grabbed his apprentice with a smirk before he could collapse.
“That was incredibly entertaining, but I think it’s time for us to take our own leave! Farewell, spellwarrior!”
“Yeah, you’d better run!” Seth shouted angrily.
“What are you doing?” Sam shouted, “We can stop them!”
Seth ignored Sam until the blood mages who had survived Garanda escaped. When he and his apprentice were alone again, he doubled over in exhaustion and groaned, “No we can’t!”
Battling Garanda the Demon Knight was possibly the most harrowing experience he’d had up to that point, and it certainly didn’t feel like a coincidence. His mind swirling with exhaustion, questions, and the fearful thoughts he denied himself up to that point, his vision began to blur. Moments later, he somehow found himself looking up at the ceiling form the floor. When did I fall down?
The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the door through which he’d entered being thrown open and Clint and Maya’s faces standing over him.
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