The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (36 page)

“
Ah, OK,” I noted. “So, I
should get myself a weapon and start working on this layered
reality thing so I can turn it into a relic.”

“
Of course,” Myrka
agreed.

Toji nodded, but added, “But that
takes a lot of time and effort.”

But Hydan added, “It’s not a bad idea
if you plan to get in a lot of knife fights.”

“
You say that like it’s a
bad thing,” I answered.

He shrugged, “If you get in enough
knife fights you are bound to get stuck, no matter how good you
are. I prefer to keep things at a distance.”

“
Coward,” Myrka
muttered.

Both of us ignored her and I said to
Hydan, “But, you said we can’t use a ranged missile of any kind
against a mage?”

“
True, but I’m not really
out to kill mages, and if I have to fight one, I try to be creative
and make my escape. We Friares are not really out to take part in
the Ascension Quest.”

“
What happens when you get
challenged to a duel?” Toji inquired.

“
We try not to get in
situations where we can be challenged; the odds of surviving in a
duel are lousy; one out of two is going to die.”

Toji just glowered at him, and Myrka
sniffed disdainfully.

I decided having a relic was probably
a good idea, I could always attempt to stay out of situations where
it was needed, but it was a nice insurance policy.

Then I asked, “OK, so do I need to get
a knife from somewhere else, or is making my own good enough if I
want to start working on a relic?”

“
There is no difference
between what you make real, and what you obtain that is real, both
are real at the time,” Hydan noted.

I nodded and then said, “OK, so just
create a knife, then keep it on me?”

Toji answered, “I’ll show you how to
spend some of your magic each day reinforcing the reality of your
relic, but to start with, yes, just make what you feel comfortable
with as a weapon. It’s best to keep it to something which is close
to you, though, a sword can get too far from our
influence.”

I thought about it and then worked on
creating something I remembered from Earth. It took me a while to
get my concentration right, but then I finally had it and I was
holding a Bowie knife.

I looked at it with a grin, and then
said in a fake Australian accent, “Now that’s a knife!”

Toji looked at it curiously, “I see
you favor weight behind your blade."

What he saw was a twelve-inch-long
steel blade which was relatively broad at just over two inches wide
and over a quarter inch thick. The upper guard bent forward at an
angle, and the lower part back, like an ‘S’ shape. It had a clip
point at the top of the blade, which brought the tip of the blade
lower than the spine for better control. This created a sharp,
stabbing point, about half of the way back. This ‘false edge’ was
sharpened, taking metal away from the point, streamlining the tip
and thus improving it when used for stabbing an opponent. With the
weight of the blade it was a good slashing weapon, practically a
stubby short sword, and with the sharp clip point, it could also
stab your enemy. All-in-all this made the Bowie knife one of the
more versatile and deadly knives in a fight.

It just felt good in my
hand.

Toji and Myrka searched the ship, but
found no mages of any kind, we gathered at the stern and I told
them what I’d learned from Medrod. Hydan perked up when I mentioned
that the Archimage of Abal was a captive of Morgain.

He sounded very excited as he said,
“We are going to have to find out more about that! I want to know
what can hold an Archimage!”

I nodded; I needed to find my
Archimage more than Hydan realized, he’d sent me on my mission to
Earth. Then I said, “Sure, but killing the M&M twins comes
first. They took Ziny, and for that, I will see an end to
them.”

“
So are you headed to this
Mystical Island to kill Morgain, or headed back to shore to
dispatch Medrod?”

I considered and then said, “Neither,
as the old Earth proverb states, “Revenge is a dish best served
cold, and though I need to hurry, I have to be prepared enough to
win this battle.”

“
Aren't you worried they
will harm Ziny?” Hydan asked.

I took a deep breath, “Very much so,
and though I would like to charge in there right now and rescue
her, my battle with Medrod showed me I must be better prepared, or
I might fail. I cannot fail Ziny! I made her a promise I would
come, and I will. But first, I need an advantage. I have to hope
they want me, as a Third, even more than little Ziny, so they will
keep her as bait.”

“
That is rather wise of
you, are you feeling all right?” Hydan asked curiously.

I ignored his quip and continued, “I
lost Caliburn, so I need a different advantage. Medrod is using the
sword I brought against us, so let’s use the information he gave me
against him! He told me my mother is The White Enchantress; let’s
go pay her a visit at the Ivory Castle and see what aid she can
give us.”

Hydan nodded, and said, “I have heard
rumor of The White Enchantress, but little is known. I have never
been to the Ivory Castle, but it is located in the Giant Teeth
Mountains, which is north of here by some distance. If what I’ve
heard is true, she does not take visitors, so no doubt the area has
a StarWard blocking Five Point travel. That means we will have to
get there the hard way.”

Neither Toji nor Myrka knew anything
more. So I went to the captain of the ship and asked him to take us
north, to the nearest place he could reach which was out of
Medrod’s guarded coast. He had heard of Ivory Castle and explained
it was inland, some distance away, high in the mountains, though he
had never seen it. I had the captain assemble his crew on the main
deck.

When all the sailors were standing on
the deck, I had the captain and his navigator and helmsman join
them.

Myrka leaned in and said, “Do you want
me to kill them now?”

I gave her a small frown and
whispered, “Heavens no.”

I then addressed the sailors. “Fellow
saerans, first let me tell you my name is Nicholas, and I am a
wizard Third of House Sivaeral. We intend you no harm. We are loyal
to the Archimage of Abal, and we oppose the foreign sorceress known
as the Island Witch. Why is it you have abandoned your race and
followed this foreigner? Has she bribed you with riches or promised
you land or title?”

A sailor somewhere in the back spoke,
“No, she will kill our families!”

I couldn’t make out who had spoken; no
doubt he wanted it that way.

“
For those of you who are
working for the Island Witch purely out of fear, you have my
sympathy! Remember you are still saerans, not slaves of some
Dokkalfar sorceress!”

“
What can simple folk do
against a sorceress,” another anonymous voice exclaimed.

I lifted my chin, “Stand for what is
right, and if you dare not do that now, then when the time comes
when House Sivaeral leads the way, and loyal saerans rise up to
throw down this evil invader, be ready to join our cause! Now, as
to your fate, we only require you sail us north, up the coast,
where we will leave you and your ship unharmed.”

We sailed north for a week and didn’t
run into any other ships. I guess the captain took us out of normal
trade routes to avoid such confrontations. We anchored in a cove at
night, and he showed us the route on a map up toward the Giant
Teeth mountain range. After that, we just slipped into the sea and
swam ashore. By the time we were on the beach, I could see by
moonlight the ship had already started to sail away to the
south.

It was a chill night, so we all
created warmer clothes and bedrolls, and got a little rest before
morning light.

The next morning, we started walking
on a thin forest trail, winding through the green mossy trunks in
the misty morning. There was a fog bank which kept us from seeing
far ahead.

As we walked I talked to Toji. “OK,
let’s work on this Self Image thing.”

He nodded. “Just remember your body,
and things close to you, are the way you want them, and then
believe nothing can change what you believe.”

“
Just like that?” I
said.

He nodded. “It is all about confidence
in what you know to be true about yourself.”

I laughed, “And here I know so little
about myself.”

He glanced over at me with a
half-smile, “That is a problem. Part of being a mage is knowing
exactly who and what you are, it is the basis of our power. This is
one of the reasons we are all so tied to our Houses and our
lineage. It’s all part of knowing the truth, understanding what you
know is real and believing in yourself without question. This is
how you build Self-Image and is what protects you from outside
realities.”

“
So, this isn’t going to
work as long as I don’t know my true heritage?”

He shook his head, “No, you can still
do it; though knowing your heritage might make it easier. What is
important right now is believing you are the way you are, without
question.”

“
That’s silly; of course, I
am the way I am!” I exclaimed.

“
Are you?” he asked and hit
me on the side of the head with a small, wet, dirt clod he had
picked up as we walked.

It hit my cheek with a small ‘splat’
sound.

“
You little bastard!” I
said, half angry, half amused, it hadn’t hurt, other than my pride.
I wiped most of the wet mud away with my fingers.

“
Pick up some mud,” he
requested.

So I leaned down and said with a grin,
“You want me to hit you in the face now?”

“
Yes,” he answered,
surprising me.

So I slung the mud his way, and it
just turned to dry dust.

That made me scowl, “Hey! That’s not
fair!”

“
All I did was know I was
not covered in mud. More accurately, I was thinking about how my
face looked, as well as my body and clothes, so nothing could
change them. Now, had that been something which would harm me, I
would not even have to consciously think about my body or
clothing.”

“
You mean bullets wouldn’t
hit you?” I asked.

He nodded, “Arrows, bullets, or an
explosion, anything which could harm me will be handled by my
subconscious reality.”

I frowned at him, “But I knew what I
looked like before you threw the mud!”

He nodded, “But you were not
consciously thinking it was unchangeable.”

I contemplated this for a moment. Then
I said, “So that’s why the UZI’s bullets didn’t hurt Stewart
Hentan.”

Hydan nodded.

Toji picked up some mud and I thought
he was going to throw it at me, but instead he smeared some on his
cheek, which immediately disappeared.

“
Kiss my ass, Toji,” I
exclaimed.

He tilted his head, “That would not be
honorable, and I would request you do not say such things to me,
even in jest.”

“
Right,” I
acknowledged.

He looked at me, I guess to gauge my
sincerity, but since I didn’t say anything else insulting to his
dignity, he continued, “You have learned how to know what you are
wearing, this is not much different. You only need to believe you
are as you are.”

I nodded and said, “Are you going to
throw more mud at me?”

He smiled, and answered, “There is no
need, when the mud on your cheek disappears, then I will know you
have it.”

I stopped for a moment, and thought
about how I looked, not how I wanted myself to look, but how I
LOOKED. It really was a lot like the clothes trick, and in a
moment, the mud vanished.

Toji was facing me and saw the mud
disappear. That’s when the little Bakemono bastard threw one of his
VERY sharp tantos at me.

I saw him start to throw the weapon,
but couldn’t even say something before he launched it at me. It hit
me square in the chest, hilt first, and rebounded to the
ground.

“
Ouch! Why you rat
bas…”

“
Propriety, please?” he
noted calmly.

I swallowed my insult and just glared
at him, massaging my chest.

“
To stop things which would
damage your body you have to believe in yourself and how you exist,
without even having to think about it. The reason you made the mud
disappear is because you thought it through, but stopping damage
requires a subconscious permanent reality.”

He picked up his tanto and said, “Work
on it, and when you think you are ready, let me know.”

I didn’t stop glaring at him for a
minute, but then we all started down the path again.

Toji was behind me, and a minute later
I heard something hit the ground. I turned around and one of his
tantos was behind me on the ground. “Hey, did you just throw
that…”