Mages of Destiny Preview

The following is an excerpt from the follow-up to Death Touch, titled Mages of Destiny. I won't be adding this story to the queue until I am 100% finished with Death Touch, but in the meantime, let's meet the sequel's three main characters!

Joseph

There is no greater terror than meeting one of Comalan’s greatest heroes. This was the lesson that awaited a spellwarrior named Joseph Baldus as he strolled through Whitebark Grove toward the mansion nestled on the tallest hill, beneath the tallest and oldest of the white trees that had taken over the landscape outside Palon. He was there to visit his wife, Chloe, who had left their home in Beldor to visit her family, taking their son Kyle with her. But she had always been secretive about her family, even six years after their marriage. He had met her mother and older brother very briefly at their wedding, but they didn’t talk much and Joseph strongly suspected that they weren’t being honest about their names. This secrecy nearly ended their marriage, but Chloe finally relented when he voiced his intention to leave her otherwise.

He should have been more careful what he wished for.

Joseph walked up to the cobblestone footpath leading up to the mansion and frowned. He could sense a faint trace of magic.

“Esia,” he murmured, causing his eyes to glow with blue light.

Joseph’s spell allowed him to see the magical energy that had been manipulated nearby. He was unsurprised to find the entire house ahead of him covered in what he could only guess was illusion magic. He knew Chloe had to have come from a magical family, given her own magical skills and this discovery lined up well with the secretive nature she had projected. Chloe could have told him that the mansion wasn’t real, but she seemed to expect him to figure this out for himself. That’s just like her!

This left Joseph looking for the real entrance. Following the tendrils of magic from the base of the house, he found what he was looking for in the base of the magnificent Whitebark’s Promise that was said to have spawned the seeds for every tree in the grove. He plunged his hand into the trunk and was satisfied to find his hand permeating the tree without any trouble. This could only mean that his in-laws’ magic made it impossible for intruders to get any further, or he was intentionally being let through the door. With a sigh, he took a step into the tree and found himself in what appeared to be a spacious sitting room. The room had a modern look, with great windows stretching between the outer walls to allow plenty of natural light. He looked outside the window to see a great forest, but the trees without weren’t whitebarks, but ordinary redwoods. What is this place?

“Ah, Joseph! I see you’ve found us!”

The voice sounded familiar, but it wasn’t the voice of Chloe. Joseph turned around and found the source of the voice to be his mother-in-law, who had wandered into the room from elsewhere. She wore a half-smile as she took a seat on a nearby sofa and patted the cushion next to her. He wanted to ask her real name, but didn’t think it wise to let on that the name he knew her as wasn’t real. 

“It’s nice to see you again, ma’am,” Joseph said awkwardly. “So, where’s Chloe?”

“Oh, she’s around somewhere, rowing with her father,” the mother said with a smile. “My husband only tolerated the idea of each of our children being married, but he was absolutely against inviting you here, I’m afraid.”

Joseph frowned and glanced toward the window once more. “I see. Well, I’m sorry if my being here puts you out. I just think I ought to know more about the family I married into.”

“Oh, I agree!” the mother said with a fervent nod. “I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that we’ve had to keep our identities a secret from someone Chloe loves for all this time, but doing so was my husband’s decision and I understand his reasoning, even if I don’t agree with it.”

The more he heard about his father-in-law, the more he regretted forcing Chloe’s hand. If he knew he was going to start a fight among Chloe’s family over this, he might have considered being a little more patient. While his spellwarrior instincts urged him to look more into this hidden discord, his care for Chloe caused him to wonder if he was making a big mistake.

Moments later, another woman walked into the room. She shared her mother’s sable hair, but her skin was less pale, just like Chloe. Unlike Chloe, however, she wore glasses, behind which a deep scar could be found, grazing her eye. She had a cold expression on her face as her eyes met with Joseph’s, but it wasn’t to him that she spoke.

“Mother, Henry called. He wanted to let you know he’s not going to be here tonight. His flight was delayed because of a fire in the skyrug terminal.”

The mother gasped. “Is he okay?”

The other woman nodded, “Yes. It happened before he arrived. He sends his regrets and assures me that he’ll be here in time for your birthday party.”

The mother sighed and shrugged. “It sounds like it can’t be helped! Since you’re here, say hello to Kyle’s dad! This is Joseph! Joseph, this is my eldest daughter, Karen!”

Karen took a seat in one of the armchairs and gave an appraising look to Joseph before responding. “Charmed. You know, Henry won’t be bringing his wife with him. I was under the impression that my partner was the only one father would ever allow here.”

“I didn’t really give much of a choice. I’m sorry,” Joseph replied. Curiosity fueling his boldness, he added. “What makes your partner so different?”

Karen looked perturbed by the question, but the mother jumped in to respond, “Her husband comes from a family with similar rules to our own. Neither of our families have any secrets from each other!”

Must be nice. “In that case, I’ll try not to pry much further than that. I really haven’t come to impose. I just need to understand why Chloe feels the need to keep so many secrets from me.”

“It’s really just the one,” the mother said, frowning slightly. “We’re a family who enjoys our privacy, but not for any sinister reasons.”

“So, then why?”

“Because if everyone found out where I live, we’d have to move!”

The response to his question didn’t come from either of the women he had been talking to, but a booming male voice from beyond the corner of his eye. He turned to see Chloe standing in an open doorway with an expression he recognized from the aftereffects of their recent arguments. She held the hand of their five-year-old son, Kyle, who looked happy and oblivious to the tension in the room. But standing to Chloe’s left was the man who had answered his question. One look at the man was all he needed to know about this family’s secrecy. They weren’t protecting a dark secret; they were protecting a legend. Seth Midas, the Champion of Chaos, was Joseph’s father-in-law.