Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (16 page)

"By breaking up with me, she pushed us together when I would have continued to fight any feelings I had for Ashleen," he confessed.

Rilena's dark brown eyes looked up at him trying to read if he was being truthful. While his words were certainly candid, she seemed to wonder if her friend was being truthful to himself as much as to her.

The girl looked away finding Elzen dancing with Naoromi. They seemed to be having fun and enjoying each other's company.

"They look good together," Rilena stated quietly to her friend.

"She looks a bit like you," he countered.

Her hand resting on his shoulder slapped down as she frowned at him again. "He isn't trying to replace me with a look alike, Bas. Naoromi has dark hair and is about my height, but everything else is different.

"No, I think it is probably for the best. He should find someone that will make him happy."

"Then you need to stop frowning when he talks to other girls and should find someone who makes you happy, Rilena," Sebastian cautioned without truly pushing the matter. He wanted his friend to be happy, but didn't know how to make that happen. She knew the same people he knew after all, so it wasn't like the mage could set her up on a date. Besides, the mage knew magic, not matchmaking.

Rilena turned away from him a moment, before she breathed in his ear, "I also think that I kind of like someone else, but that's an even bigger mess if I can believe it."

Pulling back slightly, he asked, "Who? Not me certainly!"

"Calm down. You're more like a brother to me anyway and even if I did like you, you never seem to be available so what is the point?" she laughed at his worried face. "The man I might like is just as bad a choice as someone already committed to someone else, but I can't help it. He won me over even if I originally hated him. It's stupid, but I can't help thinking that it's true."

"You don't mean, Garosh? He tortured you. How could you possibly be thinking that you might love him?" her friend questioned in shock. Sebastian barely kept his voice low as he wanted to scream at the woman to come to her senses.

"I don't know. First I hated him, and then I was stuck as his guard. Garosh treated me kindly and we talked. We became friendly and I guess eventually we were even friends.

"When we had to escape to his fortress, Garosh treated me well. He protected me and did everything he could to make my stay as comfortable as he could for me. Somewhere along the line, I found myself liking him and not just as a friend."

Shaking her head and making a sound showing her disgust at herself, Rilena quickly added, "So you can see my taste in men is suspect. Maybe for now I just need to keep my mind on being a battle mage and forget about men for awhile until I can find one that isn't a child or a monster."

They danced for another song and finally started to leave the floor. Ashleen had moved to sit by Darius as if being with the wizard would protect her from other men asking to dance with her while she waited for Sebastian.

"I asked if Elzen wanted to join me to see if I could teach him some of my magic. Since he is a healer as well, it might mean that other kinds of magic will be easier for me to pass on to him.

"Maybe I should ask if you would want to join us here instead. Either way, maybe getting a break from each other will help smooth things over for you two."

"We just need to stop worrying over that kiss and move on," she stated in partial agreement, "but unlike Elzen I don't share as much magic as you two do. I think that you could get him assigned to you by the ravens, if you told them that you wanted to see if likeminded mages could learn your other spells."

He sighed and wished that Rilena shared more of his magical abilities. There were certainly times where he missed his old friend a lot.

Changing the topic, Sebastian said, "I am supposed to go to White Hall to see my little sister as well as to set another gate for them."

A smile flit across her lips and Rilena noted his worry. "And you're afraid of what she will say now that she is a powerful wizard?"

"She'd be a novice, but if Darius hadn't trapped her magic... Katya's power was remarkable. You joke, but if she had become a wilder I would have feared for everyone around her."

"Well, good luck with your trip then. I'm sure dealing with a diplomacy wizard even as a novice will be a bit of a challenge unless she's more like them than you think. After all, a diplomacy wizard is supposed to learn how to get along as well as helping others to get along also."

He nodded and extended his hand to Ashleen while Rilena took a seat to rest her legs for a moment. It seemed like he had one set of worries after another cropping up every day.

Worrying over his sister would have to wait for after the conference tomorrow where he had to try and teach his addition to portal magic. It would have to be an early night for the owl to get the rest he needed for dealing with the wizards the next day.

Chapter 9- White Hall

It was late in the morning a few days later before Sebastian and his gate team gathered in the fire wizards' courtyard once more. The sun was hitting the stone walls to the west as the light walked its way across the grass towards the new fortifications set to the east for the portal.

Sebastian looked towards the gate he had made for Hala a mere handful of days before and felt a tinge of worry. It was weird. He had used the old portal several times and created dozens of others which he had used to pass through the silver dimension gates used to join the two points together.

Sighing as he looked at the stone and metal before him, the mage knew that the magic about to be used wasn't what he was nervous about. He was worried about seeing Katya again. There was no guarantee that his sister would be there, of course. She could be on another training mission away from White Hall; but since she was just a novice in her first year of schooling his sister was likely to be around continuing to learn how to harness her magic.

He wondered if she had done well or if it had been hard. Not every novice enjoyed changing from their prior lives to that of a wizard. Sebastian had joined the school and missed his old life greatly, especially for the first year. It was hard to be away from family initially. For some, they never got over the intrusion into their lives. The seduction of magic could sometimes replace the bad feelings, but for others they grew angrier, at least for a time.

Stories of runaway wizards and mages were common enough, though Sebastian knew of no one who had tried. Most grew used to the life, like he had. Now being a battle mage was his life and returning to see his family was uncomfortable and awkward. The mage had returned home before the tournament and been surprised by how his siblings had welcomed him. It was much better than he had feared. Sebastian had always assumed that they no longer wanted to see him, but they had welcomed him with open arms. Well, his sisters and brothers had at least.

The reception from his parents had been much colder, especially from his father. That he hated having a son with magic was apparent, and like all Southwall parents, having one only strong enough to be a mage was a disappointment. If you had to have a child cursed with magic, then they could at least be a wizard.

"You're frowning again," Ashleen stated elbowing him lightly in the side. "What is worrying you now?"

Trying to smile to try and deflect the question, Sebastian countered by saying, "Just thinking of all the work we're going to need to do at this rate. Darius pretty much left the creation of the security gates to me to make, even though I am pretty sure he in particular understood how to make them after I went over it for three days."

"So much for a one day class on making rune gates," Ashleen agreed having been to every one of the meetings with the other wizards.

The first two days involved wizards already capable of making portals. On the second, some earth wizards were brought in to try and understand the runes being placed in metal. Since he drew stone into the rods of metal, it was expected that something of the process might be easier for an earth wizard than just someone who understood portal magic but followed another element.

On the third day, though Darius returned to try and help the others make sense of the mage's magic, new wizards from the research guild replaced all the portal wizards and most of those of earth. Only Zeben, who knew both portal and earth magic, remained as he appeared closest to understanding the spells involved.

"I'm still not sure if anyone else can actually do what I do to make the gates," he sighed thinking of the hours spent trying to pass on the knowledge. "Maybe I need to find wizards and mages who understand rune magic first? Earth might be able to work the metal and Zeben can create portals, but runes are like the language they need to understand the spells. Like you wizards and your words of power, maybe it takes that kind of familiarity to do more with the runes."

Ashleen nodded slowly but added, "Well, you only understand so much about them, but maybe it has been enough to make you capable of using runes like in the gate.

"You have Serrena and me to do the welding again. I guess we can do it like the first time. We weld and you finish the gate with your spells."

He nodded and believed that she had forgotten what she had been pressing him on, but the girl surprised him by asking, "So if that was truly your worry, we've addressed it. What is actually bothering you? You aren't worried about returning to White Hall, are you? You went there with Lord Romonus, so I can't see it being the school. Is it Katya?"

His brow furrowed before he could stop it and she asked, "Why should she worry you?"

"I am the one who took her away. I told her that I would protect her and take her all the way to White Hall, and then I pawned her off on near strangers while I sailed away. Katya could be angry that I left her on her own."

Ashleen seemed to weigh his comment looking for the truth, but the little blond surprised him by asking, "When you were sent to White Hall, were you part of one of those 'harvests' you say the people call them?"

Nodding, he also answered, "Yes, of course."

"And you knew those wizards for how long before your parents and siblings just let you be taken away?"

His frown didn't lessen while the mage admitted the truth that they both understood. The question could have been rhetorical, but he still answered, "They were strangers. I didn't get to know them until we were on our way to White Hall."

"And these near strangers you sent her with; were they known to her?"

"She knew Brenner, Ardost and Vord for about a month. High Wizard Darius went with her too, but she had only known him for a couple weeks," he listed the four men that the mage had entrusted his little sister to for the trip to the school.

"And they were all friends of yours, not complete strangers?" she mercilessly pushed him with her words. "The rest of your family gave you to the unknown wizards freely. Were your powers out of control?"

"Of course not, I am just a mage, so my magic was barely felt or noticed by me then," Sebastian said wanting to roll his eyes as the girl continued to make her point without actually saying it. "Katya is way more powerful than I am. If I had left her with our family, who knows what would have happened to them or her.

"I get it, Ashleen. I'm not some monster sending my little sister away without reason or giving her to strangers since she knew my team more than most novices caught up in a harvest," he said with a release of breath trying to rid himself of the tension that was probably misplaced.

"Hopefully, Katya won't see it the wrong way, and think that I just abandoned her to go on my mission," he added quickly.

"She lost control. You know that if you had tried to take her on the ship, that she would only have been likely to get worse. Katya's a smart girl, I'm sure she realizes that you did what you could, even if you couldn't take her yourself.

"If you're so worried about it, then I should think that you would be glad to make sure that she is alright."

He looked away a moment only to turn back into the gaze of her blue eyes. Knowing that Ashleen was right, he complained, "Do you have to always be right? I thought I was the owl, so I got to be right once in awhile."

Giggling at his indignant look, which was mostly an act for her, the pretty little blond replied, "You get to be right with magic, but if you miss a point in life I can help set you right. Maybe I'll even let you be right once in awhile and correct me."

"Really?" he said less than trusting in her words, which made the girl laugh again.

"Well, probably not. Even if I am wrong, I probably won't admit it; but we'll see.

"Now shouldn't we just get this over with, Sebastian?"

Nodding, he moved forward towards the two wizards in charge of the portal for this shift. "I need a portal to White Hall, please."

He was polite with the two wizards. While he knew them from the last three days of classes, the mage barely knew their names. Being polite was simply the best way to get wizards to do what you wanted them to do as a battle mage.

The two wizards had been eyeing the group for a few minutes as Sebastian had steeled himself for the trip. His words received a nod, but no words came in response as the two wizards worked together forming the connection between the two gates. The gold light of a portal appeared in front of his metal frame appearing much smaller than the sixteen by ten dimensions that would be automatic for incoming portals.