Battle Mage: Forging New Steel (Tales of Alus Book 9) (22 page)

“You will rest as long as they tell you to,” Ashleen replied poking him lightly with her finger in his chest. “We can’t afford to lose you because you want to stubbornly get back to work.”

Frell grinned and added; “Besides your assistant needs some rest herself.”

It was only half an hour later that a woman dressed in the healer’s yellow robe stepped into the room to shoo his visitors away citing that visitor hours were over for the day. Even with having been the one to have healed him in the first place, Ashleen was told to go as well now that the mage was out of the woods. Serrena and Frell took charge of the wilder, who looked back at Sebastian longingly.

He waved to his friends giving them his goodbyes.

With his arm free, Sebastian looked at the wound on his arm again and asked the healer as she examined him with her magic, “I feel just fine. How soon before I can get out of here?”

The woman’s eyes narrowed less from his question than trying to maintain her concentration. It was a temptation to mess with her by using his healing spell to create a loop like he had with Yara, but as he thought of the girl, he realized that it was a more intimate feeling than he would wish to share with a stranger even for a joke in his boredom.

“You seem fairly healthy and the wounds have done well while you were unconscious. If I see no other problems, I think that you can leave tomorrow; but you will need a few days of rest before doing anything too strenuous,” the wizard stated as she removed her hand from his forehead from which the woman had used her magic to monitor him.

Taking a deep breath, as the mage tried to keep from just getting up and leaving in his need to be doing anything other than lying in a hospital bed, Sebastian nodded. At least he wouldn’t be wasting too much time waiting for the healers to give him a pass, he mused, as the man thought of the many days wasted in Silver World also. Time was moving too fast and summer was already on the wane in the north, even if the days were still warm and muggy for now. Southwall’s fall weather was close and he would want to get moving to his next post before the winter snows came.

There was never enough time Sebastian decided as he tried to stay put and rest. The healer left and the mage pulled back the covers to find a hospital gown of off white that verged on yellow like the healers. Checking his right leg, he saw the pink scars running from his calf almost to his waist. There was one more hidden by the gown as well, but judging by the clean quality of the wounds he could see, worrying over the last was unnecessary.

Ashleen had a knack for healing, he thought curiously. Was that the sign he needed to believe that she was the one over Yara? He didn’t know. As Mecklin had said only a couple days before, he loved them both; but that wasn’t allowed so he had to try and figure it out before Yara returned to Hala. If Ashleen was the one, then he owed it to them all to discover that truth in the short time he had before the others returned. Once everyone was back in the capitol and debriefed he would need to know if they needed to make a stand to stay together.

Sighing, the mage looked at the white ceiling and walls realizing that at least he had time to think.

Chapter 12- Evolution of Magic

After the healers cleared him to leave with the order to take it easy for the next few days, Sebastian quickly understood that his body hadn’t recovered like he had believed while lying in a bed. The short trip between the hospital and the Black Smith inn made him feel like he had run around the outer wall of the city instead of walking about half a mile. Ashleen surprised him by bringing Bairh’loore to lean on for the trip to his temporary home. The stairs to the second floor room had to be tackled after a short rest in the dining area of the inn before he went to his room and collapsed for a long nap.

The second day he ventured down to the forge with Ashleen at his side. Dressed for the heat of the forge, the little blonde had watched him closely to make sure that he could handle the walk. Not willing to completely rest, Sebastian pumped the forge for heat a few times and worked a piece of iron when it was hot. Doing a fraction of the work he had done before the accident, the mage was eventually forced to retreat to his room to recuperate from the short workout.

It was during the second day that Mecklin went to Bharen asking for the information on the sword smiths. Bringing him the information while sharing dinner in the Black Smith Inn, he found out that only three were in Hala. Of those, Mecklin was only allowed to speak to two of the master smiths after speaking with their apprentices. Granted permission, the mage did what he could to get at least a minimum amount of knowledge from the men about the specifics of creating the high quality swords.

Since the third man, reputed to be the most skilled had refused him, Mecklin had returned with what he could find and hoped that it would help point Sebastian in the right direction.

The essential bit of information hinted that Ivol had been right. Welding layers of metals specific to qualities needed for the part of the sword and finishing hammering them into shape was the key to the strongest weapons. Unfortunately, the smiths wouldn’t just hand over their recipes for the best metals, so they would have to continue on as they had once Sebastian was healthy again.

Three more days of trying to work in the forge left him going to bed early even if the young man took naps. He could tell that Ashleen was disappointed that he was collapsing so early. Guessing that the young woman would have preferred to go out dancing each night, the mage could do little to help.

Disappearing after dinner each evening, Sebastian excused himself from the evening’s fun and would go to bed not even hearing the noise of music playing downstairs as he easily went to sleep each night. He never heard the girl come to the room at night, but found her in the other bed every morning wearing a nightdress beneath a single sheet due to the warm summer weather.

It was just over a week after his release from the hospital that Sebastian returned to the battle mage practice fields. Many of the same men and women were still there trying to finish mastering the various spells he had created over the last year. He had added close to forty spells or variations of spells from all five elemental schools, light and darkness spells as well as healing. Most mages appeared capable of learning the basic elemental spells as well as light and dark; but healing and things like lightning had been impossible to pass on to Mecklin and Frell so it was up to him to try to teach those as well.

One session of teaching since he had returned had barely scratched the surface of the other spells; so even as he finished recovering his strength, Sebastian was asked to bring his new magic in the hopes of finding more like minded students. Leros and the other leaders of the corps especially hoped that he could find more healers. Even among the wizards, few could heal; but they were invaluable in the field as they tried to keep fatalities from occurring.

“So you finally came back,” Jeriah greeted him with words that dripped with sarcasm. “We were beginning to think you were too good for teaching us all your new tricks.”

The mage laughed, echoed nervously by a handful of other men gathered close to him. Whether these were friends of his Sebastian couldn’t tell though the man who had cautioned him to be careful, Yoran, was among them looking like he wanted to prevent those words from being said. Still the bigger mage appeared to be the leader, and his attitude reminded the younger mage of the bullying done by many of the wizards in White Hall.

Yoran added quickly, “Mecklin told us that you were hurt testing some new equipment or something.”

Again Jeriah stepped in to jab at the young teacher. “You mean the brilliant battle mage, Falcon Trillon, did something stupid? How could you be harmed, oh amazing one? I thought nothing could touch you.”

Sebastian wasn’t sure why Jeriah was so antagonistic towards him, though he chalked it up to being jealous for some reason. Even so, the young man answered the questions with a smile on his face though he didn’t feel the emotion he tried to emit. “I never claimed to be perfect and I have certainly done my share of stupid things. Mecklin, Frell and Ashleen can attest to some of them,” he finished with a forced laugh.

Looking at Ashleen in appreciation of her beauty, Jeriah said, “Yeah, I’ve been wondering why you keep bringing her here. She’s pretty. I also can’t imagine what she sees in you to keep following you around.”

“I am studying with Sebastian to learn more of his magic as well as trying to discover how to better master my own magic,” the girl replied. In fact, Sebastian had tried to help teach her what he could of healing magic when he wasn’t resting, though Ashleen had been unable to tap into the spells since saving him.

“A wizard is an apprentice to a battle mage?” the woman Lysbeth questioned curiously before Jeriah could speak. “That seems strange.”

Shaking his head, Sebastian stated, “She isn’t so much an apprentice as working with me to learn some new spells.”

“Like an apprentice,” the youngest of the mages Crispin said with a grin apparently enjoying the chance to tease the new teacher.

“Then I guess that you are all his apprentices as well, since you are learning new spells from Sebastian and those he has already taught,” Ashleen replied with a confident smile. “Shall we all go find apprentice robes or would you rather wear battle mage cadet uniforms again?”

Frowns appeared on some of the older mages thinking that she was talking down to them. Sebastian sought to quell the indignation beginning to arise as he said, “Like we are exchanging ideas without going back to the beginning of anyone’s training, Ashleen is trying to help me crack some new magic.”

Lysbeth looked keenly interested as were several others. The gathering of mages had grown and even Mecklin and Frell had come over as they lost their students to the discussion going on between the owl and the other mages. Asking what many were wondering, Lysbeth questioned, “What new magic? You mean that you might have even more spells?

“Mecklin and Frell wrote every spell on a board the first day hoping to go over each one, even if they couldn’t do the spells themselves. You are working on new ones?”

Wishing that they could move on from delving into such things, Sebastian wondered how much he should tell. If one of these mages proved to be able to crack the spells for him for once, it would sure be nice to be the one learning rather than being forced to teach; he thought fleetingly.

“The emperor has the use of magic that is either outlawed or unknown to us completely it seems. Like the darkness shields and light spell to disable them, we have been seeing an increased use of portal magic. We happened to capture a couple warlocks that were only passable at the magic, but they passed on what they knew.

“I am also trying to discover how to work magic into steel,” he stated trying not to give away everything about the Hollow Sword.

Lysbeth looked contemplative as she mused, “Well, learning portal magic to counter their spells, I understand; but what will magic in steel do for us?”

Glancing to Mecklin, the younger mage decided to give a new demonstration. “If I or one of the wizards working on this problem now can figure out how to bond magic to a sword properly, we can create runes which hold magic and amplify the power of our spells.”

Disbelief could be seen and Jeriah was the loudest as he refuted, “There is no way a sword can suddenly become more powerful than what we put into it.”

“Have you figured out the light and darkness spells by now, Jeriah?” he asked appearing to have changed subject.

“Night shield,” the man called upon the magic spell without delay. With a smirk he aimed his palm towards the shield just beyond his left hand and added, “Light.”

The second spell appeared to reduce the shadow shield to dust. Jeriah appeared proud of himself, and the younger mage didn’t have any reason to quash the sentiment. Moving about thirty feet away, Sebastian produced a series of five large night shields in a line between the two men. He suggested rather than giving a true order, “Hit these with your strongest light spell.”

Ready for a challenge to prove his ability, especially if he could bring the younger man down a bit; Jeriah called on his light producing a powerful blast. The strength of the spell was great enough to break the first shield, but its power had been dissipated enough that it did nothing noticeable to the second.

Passing his Hollow Sword to Mecklin beside him, he nodded towards the big man looking a bit deflated since he could only take down a single shield. His friend walked the sword to the other mage and its runed metal caught the light as he brought it towards the big man. Whistles of appreciation came from many, but Jeriah frowned and retorted in disgust, “So this is the kind of gifts the favorite mage gets now?”

Sebastian shook his head as he struggled to not let the other man annoy him. He had replaced the first black shield once more bringing the number to five before answering, “I recreated the sword and added magic to make the swirls along the blade. Those are runes in the metal, like I said, I was researching. The magic part I understand. The quality of metal I don’t since it comes from before the Cataclysm.”

As Mecklin placed the blade in the falcon’s hand with apprehension; Sebastian could tell that Jeriah was impressed with the weapon but wouldn’t admit it before the others or to the younger mage. Sebastian stated calmly, “Use the same spell channeling it into the sword, then strike at the shields.”