Spellscribed: Conviction (11 page)

Weldom was powerful, but nowhere near as powerful as Talos. Endrance had a taken a measure of the man's aura, and while he had dozens of times more power in his aura than Endrance, he was still only a fraction of the Archmagus' power.

Had Valeria been that powerful? Had he inherited that capacity for power? Endrance had no idea, but he suspected that it would be true. Being half Mercanian, a species of humanoid that were naturally potent mages, he knew with time, perhaps, he could at least come close to catching up to Talos.

The Winnower was an older, pale skinned man with thinning brown hair on the top of his hair and bushy eyebrows. His robes were black, but the sash on his waist bore only six sigils on it. He was an accomplished wizard, but had not earned the title of magus.

"Sit." Weldom commanded. Both the chairs looked the same, so he took the one farthest from them so he could look at them. Sitting down, he felt a strange tingle of magic from the chair.

In an instant, he felt his arms grow heavy, and a strange lethargy came over everything below his neck. He knew that Weldom was hoping to see him squirm, so he yawned instead. It wasn't hard to pull off; he had just woken up barely fifteen minutes ago.

"Can we get started?" Endrance asked Weldom. "I have this physical training regimen that I need to get back to."

Talos glanced at Weldom with a self-amused smirk. Weldom scowled. "Physical training is unnecessary for mages to further their power. Why do you do it?" he asked.

Endrance couldn't do much to move his limbs. He could feel his body's natural defenses slowly working against the spells enchanted into the chair he was trapped in, but it would take time for his relatively newborn natural resistances to magic to make any progress. He just kept power trickling into his body and continued on. "I do it for the meditative focus I get. Also, I have been working for the last year in a kingdom populated by a people that use me as an example of the word scrawny. So... ego, I guess."

Weldom rolled his eyes. "Of course." he said. "Winnower? Can you get this over with?"

The other man nodded, walking forward and sitting in the other chair. It was either not enchanted, or he was immune to the chair’s effects, because he scooted forward and raised his arms to Endrance's temples.

"Before I begin," the Winnower asked, looking him in the eyes. "I need you to imagine your mind as a building, and everything you know is kept safe inside. This will make the process easier on you, so try hard."

Endrance could see the man's eyes were piercing gray. "I already have a mental construct of my mind." Endrance replied. The Winnower must have checked, because his eyes widened and he broke off contact.

"He tells the truth; he already does." the man reported. "It's better constructed than some of the magus that I've worked on."

Talos whistled, but Weldom's perpetual scowl etched itself just a little bit further on his face. "What?" he demanded. "That's not possible for apprentices to pull off."

"Why is everyone so surprised when they hear I can do that?" Endrance demanded, giving his head a shake. The spell hadn't been worn away yet, but he should have had finer control than that. "Kaelob taught me that technique first, before I even learned my first word of power."

Talos glanced at Weldom. "It seems we may need to look into an adjustment of our training methods, hmm?" he asked the High Magus.

The man sighed and shook his head. "It's just an anomaly." he refuted. "Probably the only thing he's talented in. Continue the interrogation."

Talos gave the High Magus a glare. "This is a fact finding mission, not an interrogation, Weldom." he reprimanded the man. "But please, Winnower, continue."

"This will make the process easier." The Winnower observed. "Deactivate your wards."

"They're off." Endrance replied curtly. He was getting angry with Weldom and his constant raging at him. How was he any kind of impartial judge? Endrance thought mages supported each other, but he seemed content to hang him out for the wolves.

The Winnower spoke a long form spell, and almost all of the words of power he was using were unfamiliar, and he made gestures with his hands in patterns that were puzzling to him. As the mage completed the spell, a strange violet light pulsed around his hands, flowing up his body and pulsing around his head. He reached up and touched Endrance by the temples again.

Endrance had been expecting a sudden pain, or blackness, or to feel the man's mind in his, but nothing seemed to happen at first.

A voice rose to the surface of his thoughts.

"Oh shit." Endrance exclaimed. "Hey, can you hear me? You need to back out!"

Weldom slashed the air with his hand. "Shut up!" he shouted. "Continue!"

"No, really!" Endrance said. "I think there's a problem!"

The spell-form in his head. How could he have forgotten about it? Weldom had gotten him so frustrated that he hadn't even thought to warn the man when he had him lower his wards.

The voice repeated. Endrance hoped that the spell was only going to warn him of the man's activity.

The intelligent spell-form apprised.

No don't! 
Endrance tried desperately to command it to stop. He was going to have to go in himself, but he wouldn't get there in time, especially considering how riled up he was.

The Winnower's eyes widened, and his face slowly registered terror, as whatever he was encountering in Endrance's mind came to the surface. His face paled, and his throat trembled as it looked like he was screaming.

"Something's wrong!" Endrance cried again. He hadn't shaken off the spell holding him down, and the man's hands were locked in place, holding his head still. The Winnower's eyes were slowly turning bloodshot.

Weldom told him to shut up again, but Talos observed that something was wrong. He walked around, looking at the Winnower's face. Immediately he muttered a word and formed a mudra with one hand, bringing the other one down on the Winnower's arms. The spell burst the link, and the Winnower sagged in his chair, gasping for breath.

"What the hell were you doing?" Weldom demanded, shouting at Endrance, not the Archmagus. He rushed forward, checking the Winnower's vitals. "You didn't drop your wards! I knew you were guilty!"

Talos, who had been observing Endrance intently, leaned in towards him. The tattoos around his eyes and over his eyelids glowed with gold light.

"It seems he has an impossibly sophisticated spell-form in his mind." Talos observed.

"So he's trying to hide his guilt!" Weldom exclaimed. "This is all we need to convict him!"

Talos shook his head. "Nonsense." he replied. "This spell is far too complicated for him to have accomplished; even I might have to spend months crafting something of this level of skill."

"It seems to be aware." Endrance added.

"So you knew about it and you didn't say anything?" Weldom demanded, leaning in to belittle the mage. "We don't need to have this. I say we hand him over to the High King now. This little shit can't possibly be worth the title of wizard, and his behavior only proves-"

Endrance had enough. The spell had weakened a sufficient amount, but it still took a monumental effort to break through the effect. Before he had even considered the consequences, his right arm moved almost on its own, and he slugged the man in the face as hard as he could.

Weldom rocked back, blood spattering from what had to be a broken nose. He stumbled back, a hand covering his face as he appeared stunned by the blow. Endrance had not expected to hit him that hard; perhaps Joven's training regimens really were paying off. He hadn't been expecting a physical conflict to be sure.

Weldom snapped out of his surprise and thrust out with a hand, completing a spell form as he thrust his hand out and calling a word of power too muffled by his other hand for Endrance to hear clearly. Endrance rolled out of his chair to try to avoid what retribution the High Magus was about to bring.

"
Enough
." Talos spoke softly, and Endrance's skin crawled with the sudden influx of power the Archmagus just used. Weldom's spell died before it could be completed. A sudden force caught Endrance and Weldom full body, picking them up and shoving them to the opposite sides of the walls. The curtain was thick, and made the impact slightly less painful. It was a similar effect to the far hand spell that his master Kaelob had used, but it was a magnitude more powerful and seemed to require nothing but a fraction of the Archmagus' attention.

"I will not have you killing him, and most certainly not where there could be political ramifications. Doing so would cast suspicion on the entire Circle of Magi." Talos said, his tone neutral.

"And Endrance, while I may forgive you being unable to recognize the potential harm in a spell too complicated for you to understand, I cannot allow you to continue assaulting higher ranking members of our hierarchy. Do so again, and I will personally attend to your punishment."

Endrance nodded.

Talos let them both go, and they slipped to the ground. Endrance, however, managed to stay on his feet.

"Now," Talos said evenly. "Weldom, attend to the Winnower. I will escort Endrance back to his room."

Endrance walked to the door and stepped out after the Archmagus. The door slammed closed.

Endrance felt for the first time, that he was actually in trouble.

"I'm sorry." he pleaded. "I don't know what came over me."

"You've been living with barbarians for a year." Talos said, his voice surprisingly devoid of anger. "I would have been surprised if you hadn't tried to hurt him for attacking your honor so aggressively."

Endrance was confused. "Then..." he started.

"Then why didn't I step in before it escalated?" Talos asked, a hint of a smile on his face as they walked down the stairs. "Well, for starters, I wasn't expecting you to so completely break out of the restraints that were put upon you."

"Oh."

"And then if I had, I wouldn't have had reason to remove you from his custody." Talos admitted, making a disgusted face. "I can't stand the man."

"He's an asshole." Endrance supplied.

"Yes, that." Talos said. "And now, since all the other High Magi are unavailable for some time, I'll be able to keep custody of you until the trial."

Endrance stopped walking. "You..." he stammered. "You wanted to get me away from him?" he asked. "Why?"

Talos gestured for him to continue following. "Because." he replied. "There's much we need to discuss, you and I. Matters of grave importance... or rather importance beyond the grave."

Endrance rushed down the stairs to catch up. The Archmagus continued.

"Weldom seems incapable of seeing past his vendetta with Kaelob to recognize the skill and power you have." Talos said calmly. "The things you've accomplished are beyond amazing for someone so young. In fact, the very truth that you are a wizard before your third decade says astounding things for your ability."

"I don't quite understand." Endrance asked. "I didn't get much exposure to other apprentices while in training."

Talos was silent a moment, as if considering his next words. "Even the most talented children who become some of our greatest mages can't pass the trials required to be accredited as a wizard until they're around thirty, thirty-five, on average. There are lessons that just take time to learn. Do you remember when you said that your mental construct was the first thing you were taught?"

"Yeah."

"That is a very difficult thing for a child to learn. I have not seen one, to this day, who knew themselves enough, and had the mental discipline enough, to fabricate even a basic construct. And yet, when I examined your mind, I saw you had one that I think might be even better than my own."

"That's... saying a lot." Endrance managed to get out. Was he being praised by the Archmagus?

"I also see you have developed a great many more scribed tattoos than just the lightning one you had when you came to this tower a year ago." the man observed. "And you told Weldom you did them yourself. Is that true?"

"Yeah."

"And you have another bracer."

"...Yes." Talos hadn't mentioned the bracer at their last visit.

"You also have a spell form in your mind that I recognize. Archmage Valeria's work, if I've ever seen it."

"Came with the second bracer."

"And how did you get that?"

Endrance sighed. "It's..."

"Complicated?" Talos asked with a chuckle. "It wouldn't be worth my attention if it wasn't."

They arrived at the door to his room, but Talos kept walking. Endrance followed, looking back at his door until it was out of sight.

"I'm sorry about the Winnower." Endrance asked. "But I wasn't trying to hurt anyone."

"I know." Talos said. "It was also my fault for not thoroughly examining you myself. I would have noticed something they wouldn't have."

"What's that?"

"You're not entirely human anymore, are you?" Talos asked, stopping and looking him in the eyes.