Mercury Mind (The Downfall Saga Book 1) (12 page)

Osmont came prowling over the grass. He shucked his cloak and hung it on the tree. Taking a neutral pose, he began a slow stretch. Hurrying to catch up, Donovan began mimicking the movements. Donovan felt like a baby deer taking its first steps, as he clumsily imitated Osmont. His arms and legs quickly became sore and felt heavy, but still he endured.

His right arm swayed in across his body, as if blocking a blow. Left leg planted, he raised his right leg at a glacial pace, in what resembled a sweeping kick. He turned around, and took a small step backwards while pivoting his arm, and Donovan stumbled to his knees.

Popping back to his feet, Donovan tried the turn again and had to shuffle his feet to keep from falling.

Osmont stopped and faced Donovan, taking up the stance that came before the spot where Donovan kept stumbling. Donovan studied his posture before imitating the stance. Osmont gave a small nod before starting again.

Donovan watched him complete the turn-step, before trying it himself, and again stumbled.

“Again,” said Osmont, watching as Donovan took up the starting stance. Donovan started his turn and Osmont almost immediately stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Imitation without knowledge is dangerous,” said Osmont.

Balancing mid turn, right leg a couple inches off the ground, Osmont adjusted Donovan’s posture. Grabbing Donovan’s hips in his hands, he twisted them so they proceeded his right leg. He then pushed Donovan’s left shoulder back, and turned Donovan’s head slightly so it preceded the turn.

Donovan tried it again, he still stumbled but felt like he had more control.

“No,” said Osmont patiently. “This motion is designed to create separation between you and your opponent. Your shoulder must move him away, otherwise he’ll knocked you back onto your butt.”

Osmont stepped in front of Donovan with his back facing him. Osmont slowly swung around, his left shoulder connected with Donovan’s sternum. Donovan hadn’t bothered to brace himself because of the glacial speed of Osmont’s movements, but nonetheless he pushed Donovan aside with ease, before taking a half step backwards and raising his arms into a fighting stance.

A slap flew out, and this time Donovan managed to tilt his head and roll with the impact.

Donovan took several steps away from Osmont, and tried the maneuver again, this time focusing on his shoulder hitting an imaginary opponent. He barely stumbled this time.

With a smile, Osmont took up a neutral pose, and begun the routine anew. Donovan followed his movements, this time making it most of the way through the routine before stumbling. Resetting, he started the dance anew.

Donovan began asking an incessant stream of questions for the remainder of their session, and slowly came to understand the reasons behind many of the subtle movements which Osmont made during his routine.

***

P
rofessor Cleary waited in his classroom as the students filed in, a large map of the world on the stand at the front of the room. He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. “Please take your seats. We have a lot of things to cover today.”

He sat down on the edge of his desk and waited until everyone was settled. “Yesterday we covered the creation myths,” he said. “We’re going to be spending the rest of the week building a solid foundation before we start learning about more recent events. Starting with the founding of what eventually became the Rourke Empire. What can you tell me about the time before we had our first king?”

Many hands shot up into the air. Once people saw Caddaric’s arm raised, near the center of the room, most of the students lowered their arms. Ravyn was one of the few who kept her arm raised, sitting at the front of the room with Delaney.

Professor Cleary pointed at Ravyn. “A tribal system existed, with each clan banding together for protection from their neighbors,” she said. “It was chaotic, with changing allegiances and regular conflict between the tribes.”

“Very good,” said Cleary. “How did Rourke come to be in a position of prominence?”

This time he called on Caddaric to answer.

“There are disagreements on the exact events that led to his coronation,” said Caddaric. “What is generally agreed upon is that he was a successful merchant, who spent his early years forging relationships with many of the human tribes and the Dwarven realm of Kern to the north. The exchange of our crops for manufactured goods from Kern, especially weapons, earned them enough wealth to pay off the largest tribes in exchange for protection. Founding Kendra in his middle years, he began an ambitious policy of expanding trade and building infrastructure.”

“Good,” said Cleary. “His sons continued his legacy and eventually build trade routes leading to the four major empires, all intersecting in Kendra, which to this day is still the capital city of Rourke.”

Kort began to tell Donovan a joke about a dwarf and a goat working at a mill, and he missed the rest of Cleary’s speech where he talked about the trade routes running north to the dwarven empire of Kern, west to the elven nation of Strom, southwest to Tanic where the onora live and east to the fallen Deogol empire.

“Hey, are you two listening?”

Looking up, Kort and Donovan saw Professor Cleary standing in front of their table.

“Rourke is the greatest realm in the world,” ventured Kort.

Despite some hoots and cheers from the class, Professor Cleary didn’t look happy. “Can either of you tell me about Haven’s history?”

Donovan glanced at Kort expectantly, but Kort gave a slight shake of his head. “No, Professor,” said Donovan.

“Then you should quit disrupting my class and start paying attention,” he said forcefully. “Now can anyone help educate these two delinquents?”

“Yes, Professor,” said a smirking Caddaric. “I’m always glad to help out the ignorant and less fortunate. Haven wasn’t founded until generations later, but its origins can be traced back to our earliest history. While a few tribes worshipped the Gifted, most hunted them down and attempted to eradicate them. Many of these early wizards fled into these mountains to hide, and eventually found each other and began using their Gifts to build an underground compound to hide from their persecutors. Over time, many wizards risked their lives by leaving Haven to seek out others with the Gift and offer them refuge. As their numbers grew, so did Haven, and the knowledge and abilities of its residents.”

Professor Cleary circled the room while Caddaric was speaking, making sure that everyone was paying attention. Now he returned to the front of the room, with a bounce in his step.

“This brings us to my favorite myth about Haven,” said Cleary, writing ‘Zeren’ on the blackboard. “Legend says that Zeren himself founded Haven and lived here for nearly a thousand years. Zeren and his offspring were said to have a special Gift, their abilities were so unique that they barely resembled wizards as we know them, and formed a separate sect within Haven. Their gifts were said to be focused on enhancing themselves, not the world around them. There was apparently a falling out between Zeren and his followers during the first Shem invasion which led to his exile, and the construction of a holy place in his honor. The Zerenists’ Gifts have been exaggerated as they fell into myth and legend, but stories claim that they could drop naked into a nest of vipers and leave without a scratch. They could dance along a single strand of spider silk as if it were a road and they could even regrow a severed limb.” He let out a series of high pitched chuckles before continuing. “These are, of course, only stories. What we do know is that a small sect of Zerenists have lived at Haven going back to our earliest records until they suddenly disappeared a thousand years ago during the last Breaking. No records tell of why they disappeared during the war, but it’s assumed that most were killed during the fighting. The strange part is that despite the testing of all human teenagers, none have been discovered since.”

Ravyn’s hand had been in the air for the last half of Cleary’s speech, but he had ignored her until now. “Is it true that the only Zerenists were human?” she asked.

“We have many old records about testing and admitting wizards as Zerenists and all of them were human. As far as I know there aren’t even stories about other races displaying abilities similar to the Zerenists. Many people point to this as proof that their abilities have been distorted and they were nothing but a religious sect of wizards. I personally believe that that the Zerenists had unique abilities, similar to a Seer’s second sight, because it seems unlikely to me that the administration at Haven would have created an entirely separate training program solely because of religious beliefs.”

“How would you identify a Zerenist when testing for the Gift?” asked Donovan.

“I don’t actually know,” said Cleary.

Students continued to ask questions about the early life at Haven and how it’s different now, until they ran out of time and had to head off to Professor Moncha’s classroom for Arcana.

Glass spheres were already sitting on each of the tables in the room as they entered. Professor Moncha explained that these artifacts were similar to the ones used during the testing of their magical abilities, except they were designed to be more difficult to light.

Donovan’s experience was exactly the same as during his testing. His orb immediately lit up, but its light was so dim that it could barely be seen with the bright sunshine shining through the windows where he and Kort were sitting.

Caddaric and Ravyn had the brightest lights by far, but both were scolded for making a scene when they got into an argument over who had the brightest.

As the class progressed, Professor Moncha taught them how to focus their Gifts to light their sphere without touching it. This proved to be difficult for most of the class, but following Professor Moncha’s careful instruction, most of them managed to get them lit before the end of class.

At the end of the class, everybody but Donovan was exhausted from using their Gifts for an extended period of time. Professor Moncha told them that it was normal and they would build up their stamina over the term. She was more surprised by Donovan’s energetic skip as he headed off for lunch.

The rest of the day was similar to the previous one. Donovan headed down to the library, while the others went to Arithmetic, and started reading
The Early Days of Rourke
, hoping to negate the disadvantage of his lost memories.

The next morning he joined Osmont out in the quad, and finally asked him a question which had been on his mind since the previous day.

“Why is my Gift so weak?” he asked, stretching his cupped left hand in front of him. “Could the Blood magic be leeching my Gift?”

“I wondered about that since Cleary told me about your test,” said Osmont, swaying both of his arms to the right. “I’m going to be straight with you. Most of what I know about Blood magic is from what I’ve read the last few days.

“Which is still more than I know.” He pivoted left, shoulder down, then extended both of his palms forward.

“I’m convinced that it is Blood magic carved into your chest, but I cannot even begin to fathom who could have done it. We have the two greatest magical libraries in Rourke, one at Haven and one in the keep at Kendra, and between them we have found little information on the subject. Its use was banned thousands of years ago and it appears that people were successful in destroying most of the records about its use.”

Osmont was quiet while he performed a series of connected movements. Slowly turning one hundred and eighty degrees, he shoved his arms forward. Performing a glacial mule kick behind him, he twisted around to face the opposite direction before his foot hit the ground. Arms swaying to deflect a series of slow, invisible attacks before he kneed one attacker and elbowed the other. Coming to rest, he drew a series of slow deep breaths.

“On a normal person, the Blood magic would last a few days at most before it lost it power,” said Osmont. “On you, it could last a lifetime.”

“So, it could be draining my power?” asked Donovan, bent over with his hands on his hips, still gulping in air.

“I don’t know, so I won’t discount the possibility. It appears to work in a similar way to how an Artificer imbues an artifact. The symbols must be etched precisely, the vessel has to be suitable for its function and the imbuer needs to have exceptional control and concentration while transferring energy into the vessel.”

“Is that what I’ve become to you? I’m no different than a clay bowl.”

“I was using clinical terms and didn’t intend to offend you.” Seeing that Donovan wasn’t ready to start another routine, he continued talking. “The few tidbits that I’ve found make it sound like it can be used to deaden or enhance certain attributes. You could make your arm never feel pain or any other sensation, or you could enhance its sensitivity until the slightest breeze would become unbearable.”

“So I still have my memories, I just can’t access them?”

“I believe that you still have your memories, but the access to them has been blocked. You can still speak and read, and do all kinds of other things which you couldn’t if the knowledge was removed completely. You seem to be able to access some information through your subconscious, but cannot access anything directly.”

“So how do I get rid of it?”

“I’m working on it.”

“Can you drain my Gift until the Blood magic burns itself out?”

“Ah, the ignorance of youth,” said Osmont, letting out a joyous laugh. “Sometimes I wish I could experience it again. To answer your question. No, we have no way to nullify anyone’s Gift completely.”

“So, I’m stuck like this forever?”

Osmont looked him straight in the eye for several seconds before answering. “I’m doubtful that we’ll be able to counteract it, unless we find the person who did it to you in the first place. If we can gather enough pieces about your background, then maybe we can narrow down the list of possible places where you grew up and start investigating each one.”

“If I could remember my past, then this wouldn’t be necessary in the first place.”