The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (15 page)

“
Uh, about a mile and a
half, approximately, per mector,” he said, doing some quick
math.

“
Wouldn’t the Archimage of
Abal reside at the capital?” I asked, I mean, I was interested in
finding my parents, sure, but I really needed to get my memories
back. And if I had been working for him, well, it was time we had a
chat.

Hydan pondered, “Normally, yes, though
I don’t know if he is there.”

“
Good enough, though I hope
we aren’t walking three hundred miles just for a drink!”

“
I would, for the right
drink, but in this case, I shouldn’t have to. There should be quite
a few good watering holes along the way, so have no fear!” Hydan
exclaimed.

“
When he becomes severely
inebriated, it will be easier to kill him,” Myrka noted
gleefully.

Hydan chortled at that.

Chapter Six

Saved in the nick in
time.

-AC/DC

We reached the lowlands and picked up
a road going through a forest which covered the gently rolling
hills. Hydan took a good look at me, and I turned to say, “What? Do
I have some strange bug on my head?”

“
No, but it’s time you
learned to fit into Abal.”

I laughed, “I don’t fit in anywhere.
Or a better way of saying it is: I don’t know where I should fit
in!”

“
Well, this is your World,
so you better start by figuring out how to blend in here properly,”
he said.

“
And how do I do that? Are
you going to buy me some new clothes?”

He smiled, “No, though I could. I’m
going to teach you how to start using your wizard
powers.”

“
Oh really, magic?” I
scoffed.

“
Yes, magic,” he
replied.

I spoke sarcastically, “Do I get a
wand? Shall I cast a clothing spell, ‘Silliouspantus!’” I called
out, waving my hand in a circle above my head.

Hydan smiled, “We don’t need to create
a spell to change local reality. What do you think your hand waving
was going to do, besides scare some birds?”

“
I don’t know, dress me in
pantaloons or something,” I replied.

He nodded, “You could have those if
you wish, or something more like this,” and suddenly his simple
shirt and pants changed instantly to some kind of scale armor, it
was gorgeous. The scales were highly polished silver, with black
leather joints.

I did a double take, “You… you really
can just whip up clothing!”

“
Or armor,” he
noted.

“
How did you do that?” I
asked incredulously.

He grinned, “I changed what I had into
a different reality. You can’t make something from nothing, but you
can change what exists into something else.”

“
How?” I
exclaimed.

Hydan explained, “By knowing what it
is you are wearing and making this the reality around
you.”

“
Hell, that’s
easy!”

He looked surprised, “Well, it is, if
you are a mage, I’m just surprised you figured it out so
swiftly.”

I turned to Myrka, who was silently
watching this exchange, and said, “That was sarcasm, a joke. You
would think he would get that.”

“
What is sarcasm?” she
asked blankly.

In answer, I said, “I see you are wise
and all knowing.”

“
That is true,” she
replied. “but what has this to do with sarcasm?”

“
Everything.”

Hydan smiled, but said, “Joke or not,
it is actually easy, as long as a few things are true. First, you
have to really believe you know what you are wearing, doubt will
screw you like a two-bit...”

“
Thanks, got it,” I
interrupted, “What else?”

“
Well, you have to be a
mage, and the distance you can affect things is directly
proportional to your belief and heritage.”

“
Bite me, Hydan,” I said,
vehemently.

“
Bite you… where?” he
asked.

“
It’s an Earth expression,
it simply means, piss off.”

“
Piss off? Onto what?” he
also asked.

“
Never mind. The point is
this makes no sense to me.”

Hydan nodded, “Ah.”

Myrka broke in, “You shape the reality
around you by what you believe is real. The further away reality
is, the less you can affect it.”

“
So, just because Hydan
believes he is wearing that armor, it exists?”

“
Not exactly,” Hydan
answered, “It’s more like because I know my shirt is made of metal
scale and leather, it is. Here, look,” he said, stepping right up
next to me. Suddenly my cotton shirt was scale mail, just like
his.

He stepped away, “Do you believe you
were wearing scale mail? Or do you really think you were wearing
that cotton shirt?”

“
I’m wearing a cotton
shirt; this is some kind of…”

Right, then my shirt changed to white
cotton.

“…
trick,” I said,
faltering.

“
I believed your shirt was
armor, but you changed it back because you believe it is a shirt,”
Hydan explained.

“
Bull shit,” I
exclaimed.

“
Don’t you trust your own
eyes?” Hydan asked.

“
No, not these days,” I
replied belligerently.

He just watched me.

“
OK,” I said, “suppose, for
just a moment, I don’t think you are a nut case, or what you are
telling me is a joke.”

“
All right,” Hydan
replied.

“
Are you saying I can keep
changing my clothes into whatever I want, as long as I believe that
is what I’m wearing?”

“
Absolutely, up to a
point.”

“
A point?”

He nodded, “That point being one of
two things, the first being you have sufficient power available. It
isn’t endless, and the higher your tier, the more you have
available. As a Third, you can do a lot, but the supply isn’t
endless.”

“
What if I run
out?”

“
It is difficult to do
that; you have to really push beyond a natural limit which will
make you feel tired. This is your body’s way of warning you to
stop, but if you don’t, if you use up all of your magic, you could
die. However, as I said, you will feel when you are getting low,
and then you can just stop. Your power will then slowly
replenish.”

I considered for a moment, and then
said, “And the other thing?”

Hydan smiled, “The other thing which
will keep you from changing reality is if there is an opposing mage
who is seeing reality differently than you. If that mage has more
power they will win, and reality will shape itself to their
desire.”

“
I see, is this why Fiona
couldn’t stop that big necrosoul back in the pub?”

He nodded, “Yes, there was a
necromancer who was controlling those necrosouls, and he was
countering Fiona’s vision of reality, and doing it without being in
the room! That would take a lot of power, the kind of power The
Dragon can wield. Very few mages could do that to a Second
sorceress from that kind of distance.”

“
So, why bother with
physical armor, can’t a mage just believe he has a gun and plug you
full of holes, right through that fancy looking armor you are
wearing?” I asked.

Hydan reached into his pocket and then
pulled out a pistol. I recognized it; the gun was a type from
earth, a Ruger 357, single action. He dropped the gate down,
extracted one of the six bullets, showed it to me, and then put it
back into the cylinder and closed the gate to show me it was
loaded. He then reversed the gun, and handed it to me, grip
first.

“
Shoot me,” he
said.

I frowned, “What?”

“
Shoot me with the gun, I
assure you it is loaded with real bullets, just like you get on
Earth, and I also assure you it will not harm me in the
slightest.”

I remembered shooting Stewart Hentan,
back in the Temple of Karnak, the bullets hadn’t even bothered his
clothing. “Oh, I bet you don’t believe in the bullets, so when they
get close they change to something else, something
harmless.”

Hydan shrugged, “Yes, they would do
that when they got close to me. We call it subconscious reality. My
subconscious won’t let anything get near me which will do me harm,
even if I am asleep, or can’t see my attacker, like a sniper from
distance. You can’t surprise me, so you can’t hit me with a bullet,
from any distance or at any time. But, that’s not why the gun isn’t
going to harm me today.”

“
It isn’t?” I
asked.

“
Nope, go ahead,
shoot.”

I aimed at his chest, then thought
better of it, and aimed at his upper arm.

He noted my change of aim and smiled,
“It doesn’t matter where you aim.”

I nodded, but kept the aim at his arm
and then I fired the gun.

It was very anticlimactic, the hammer
fell, it went click, and nothing happened.

“
It’s a dud,” I
exclaimed.

Hydan laughed, “They are all duds, and
every bullet you ever make on Abal will be a dud. The Archimage of
this planet set the rules of physics here in such a way that
gunpowder, or anything which burns fast like that compound, won’t
work. Nobody can change it, either, not on this Archimage’s world.
In fact, this is true of all worlds, with the exception of Earth,
which has no Archimage anymore; she was killed a long time
ago.”

“
Really, so no guns on the
other Worlds?” I said.

“
Actually, you can have all
the guns you want, but all you can do with them is throw them at
someone, or use the gun like a club, but there are far better
ranged or melee weapons than a gun to make and use of it is your
desire to harm someone with a club.”

Myrka nodded, “This is why I use my
dagger, which works on all the Worlds. And when I coat the blade in
Derkaz power it will cut through just about anything.”

“
How come her knife doesn’t
change when she changes other things?” I asked.

Hydan replied, “Well, first off
because she doesn’t think the knife is something else, but also
because it is a relic.”

“
Relic? Like an old
thing?”

“
No, a relic is something
which has been kept on a mage’s body for a long time, and they have
invested a lot of power into the reality of this item. Relics tend
to keep their original shape, even if a mage attempts to change
them.”

“
Tend to?”

He shrugged, “It depends on the amount
of power invested and the amount of power the mage who is trying to
change them has at their disposal.”

I looked at the ring on my left hand,
“What about this ring?”

Hydan looked at it, and said, “Yes, I
sense a lot of power invested, this is indeed a relic.”

I thought about all this for a few
minutes and then I figured it couldn’t hurt to accept what Hydan
was saying and try to change my clothing. I pictured myself in the
armor which Hydan was wearing, but nothing changed.

“
It isn’t working,” I
said.

“
That’s because you doubt.
You have to know what is what, and then it will become true because
it IS true.”

“
Just believe that’s the
way it is, and Bob’s your uncle?” I asked.

He pondered that, “You can’t make Bob
your uncle using magic; it doesn’t work on changing people’s
heritage.”

I snorted, and then I looked at Myrka,
“What about her?”

“
She will change when she
knows what she is wearing,” Hydan answered.

I shook my head as if trying to clear
cobwebs.

He tried to explain, “She has never
been to this world, so she has no concept of what she should be
wearing. Once she does, she will change. Here, I’ll give her an
image, if she’s willing.”

Myrka scowled but then
nodded.

Hydan concentrated and suddenly
Myrka’s clothing changed to another style of light armor, though
hers was molded from some hard pieces instead of scale, and she had
a cloak that draped over her shoulders, with a hood, which was
currently down. The cloak could cover her completely if she pulled
it closed in front.

“
You put that on her?” I
exclaimed.

Hydan shook his head, “No, I sent an
image to her mind of this type of armor, but she created it in her
reality. I would have to get much closer to her to change her
clothing to my reality, and even then her Power would be fighting
my realities intrusion.”

“
I’m getting a headache,” I
said.

“
If you believe that is
true, you most certainly will,” he answered.

“
Screw you, it’s a
headache,” I answered.

“
I never get headaches,
because I don’t believe in them,” he replied.