The Archimage Wars: Wizard of Abal (40 page)

“
The Archimage of House
Sivaeral!” Finnabair stated.

Toji’s eyes widened, “That would
explain his Sivaeral Glyph, for then you would be the lower Tier,
and Nicholas would have gotten his House from his father… but that
would make him.”

“
A Second, not a Third, of
House Sivaeral,” Finnabair announced.

I was stunned, but I finally said, “So
you really are my mother?”

“
Yes, Nicholas,” she said
warmly.

“
And my father is a
prisoner of Medrod and Morgain.”

Finnabair nodded, “How did you know
that? Your father’s imprisonment by that Dokkalfar sorceress isn’t
common knowledge. I have kept it from the people so they would have
hope, and of course, I have hoped to free him some day.”

I shrugged, “Medrod told me while I
was his prisoner, which is how I also found out you were my
mother.”

She just raised an eyebrow fin at this
revelation.

“
Congratulations, Nicholas,
you are the most powerful mage of our group now,” Hydan
noted.

“
Which brings me to you,”
Finnabair stated, looking at Hydan. “What brings a Friare on such a
dangerous mission?”

“
Entertainment, I just love
a good show, and this is the best I’ve ever found! There have been
chickens, snogfish, and maidens in distress! I’ve tasted brandy and
beer. Nick has been captured and escaped. We have run into evil
ghosts and guardian shades, necrosouls and necromages. We’ve fought
battles with evil, and fooled the enemy. We’ve flung ourselves
over, swam under and now climbed up walls. I haven’t had this much
fun since my brother got me drunk, kidnapped me as a child and left
me alone on Elysium with a bunch of Angels as a joke.”

“
He got you drunk when you
were a child?” I asked.

Toji answered me, “On Nibiru they
serve what Earth humans would call 200 proof alcohol in their baby
bottles.”

Hydan just smiled and took a deep
drink from his goblet of the red wine like brew being
served.

Finnabair hadn’t taken her eyes off of
Hydan, but she said, “I believe no more than one word in ten out of
your mouth.”

Hydan laughed, “That, from an Albus? I
believe one word in a hundred from you.”

She ignored that and then got Myrka’s
and Toji’s stories out of them, one at a time.

Finnabair turned back to me, “So, my
son, why, after all these years, have you returned to find your
real mother?”

I looked at her and replied, “Well,
first off, I’d like to know why you left me on Earth with foster
parents?”

Finnabair looked away for a moment and
then said, “Nicholas, I didn’t abandon you on Earth, until a few
moments ago I had no idea where you had grown up. You were stolen
from me when you were but a baby, and I have looked for you ever
since. I have lived much of my life on Abal simply because you are
of House Sivaeral, so this was the most likely place you would be,
or to which you might eventually return, and I was
right.”

That stunned me for a moment, and then
I said, “Who took me?”

Finnabair looked sad, but replied, “I
don’t know who, or why, Nicholas. It has been the mystery which has
colored my life for many years. Though I do not condone, I can
understand a House ending a mage’s line as part of their Ascension
Quest, but why kidnap a child? Were they planning on using you as
leverage later? I didn’t know and still don’t. I’m just happy to
finally get you back and to know you are safe and free. I look
forward to getting to know you, son.”

So, I have some unknown enemies, or my
mother does, which is the same thing as far as I’m
concerned.

We ate in silence for a few minutes,
each of us in thought, and then Finnabair said, “Nicholas, why did
you come here, now. From what you said, you are trying to save this
saeran child you befriended.”

I nodded, “We came seeking aid so we
can rescue her, and for that I need information. By learning more
about my past, I hoped to understand my place in these crazy worlds
so I can better believe in my powers, and hopefully use them better
with that understanding. I also hoped you might be able to help in
some way.”

The White Enchantress nodded. Then she
said, “Let me think about it, perhaps we can have some time to
talk, just the two of us, as mother and son.”

I gave her nod and a small
smile.

Toward the end of the meal, I said,
“So, why do you call yourself the White Enchantress?”

She laughed, and the sound was
musical. “I needed a title so I could hide my real name and House.
People around here think it derives from the white stone at the
tops of these mountains, the same stone which makes up my castle.
But truthfully that’s not where the name came from. I spent a lot
of time on Earth, with your father, some time ago. We were hiding
from prying eyes. I have had many versions of my name translated
into different languages over time. On Earth, I had English, Irish,
and Welsh versions. My current name really comes from what people
call us on my home World, White Fay. On Earth, the Irish
translation was Findabair, or Finnabair, which also translates to
The White Enchantress. It seemed to fit in many ways, so that is
what I adopted here on Abal.”

When dinner was over the others
retired, but I went to a library with my mother, and there we
talked alone.

She was seated with a crystal glass
sipping a drink, and I was looking at the books when she said, “You
are not telling me everything, are you, Nicholas?”

“
Not everything,” I agreed.
“There are things I have even kept from Toji and Myrka.”

She smiled, “But not
Hydan?”

“
I told him pretty much all
of it early on, but he cautioned me to be more
circumspect.”

“
He is probably right;
information can kill you as easily, or more so, than a
dagger.”

I nodded, and then said, “There is,
however, one thing I have held back, even from Hydan.”

She pondered for a moment, and then
said, “I know you have your reasons for holding things back, but I
have to ask, are you planning to tell me the rest, or do you feel
you can’t trust me that far yet?”

That was a good question, and I didn’t
answer as I thought about my possible replies.

She waited patiently, taking a sip
from her glass, before saying, “I want you to know I am willing to
wait, and will not take it poorly if you choose to hold things
back. However, I must caution you, taking on Medrod and Morgain
will be extremely dangerous. I couldn’t handle them both, and with
the army they have built, well, you can see I am barely holding
onto my castle. The more you tell me, the more likely I can give
you aid, but it is your decision.”

Ah hell, Hydan knows anyway, and so
does Fiona, what’s one more joker in the deck? So I turned to her
and said, “I have lost my memory.” Then I explained about the spell
which Fiona told me about, the memory eater.

Finnabair sat silent for a time after
that, considering. Then she said, “You were likely hit with a
sigil, one with a very rare spell, most mages would rather just
kill you than take your memories away. There has to be a reason
they would do that instead of just killing you. If they could get
you with that spell, then they should have been able to end your
line.”

I furrowed my brow in thought, which
didn’t really do me all that much good since nothing came to mind,
so I asked, “Why would anyone do that then?”

“
Well, let’s walk it
through, if they didn’t kill you when they could, it means they
wanted you alive. But, they didn’t want you alive with whatever
knowledge you had. Since silencing you would be much easier with
your death, the only reason I can think for taking your memories is
so they could use you in some way. Something you knew would have
stopped them from doing that, so they got rid of that issue.
Otherwise, they would have just killed you.”

I guess that made a strange kind of
sense. “What possible use can I be without my memory?”

She pondered, “Well, as a hostage, for
one. Another would be to keep your line alive, yet have you forget
something you learned.”

That made me think of The Dragon, I’d
stolen some secret from him, maybe a third party didn’t want that
secret out, but needed me alive.

Then I said, “I told you there was
something I haven’t told anyone, but I will tell you.”

She smiled slightly, and waited
silently, just watching me with her dark saeran eyes.

“
I remembered something, in
a dream.”

She nodded, “Missing memories might
come back to you that way.”

“
Well, in this case, I
didn’t see who I was talking to, but they gave me an order to steal
some information, and I believe it was from The Dragon. Since this
was some kind of order, I assumed it was my Archimage, and I came
to Abal, not only to find my parents but to seek out my Archimage
to see if he could restore my memories. I had no idea my Archimage
and my father were one and the same.”

My mother replied, “Rescuing your
father will be extremely difficult, Nicholas. I can help you by
teaching you how to use your power. You are strong, and if you
believe in your powers they can save you. However, no matter how
much I teach you, there is still Medrod, and from what you told me,
he is now wielding Caliburn. Then there is his wife; she is a
powerful Dokkalfar sorceress, make no mistake. She will have many
strong necromages at her call, and her own powers of
darkness.”

I laughed, “Wow, you don’t make a good
cheerleader, from the sounds of it, you’re telling me even if you
teach me what you can, they are going to clean my
clock.”

She smiled, “A strange euphemism for
death or destruction, but I guess life is a kind of clock, since
we’re are all counting time to our end, and in cleaning a clock you
must take it apart, and therefore stop that clock. I am telling you
the truth so you do not go in with false bravado and unrealistic
expectations. You aren’t going to fight your way in, end Medrod and
then ‘clean’ Morgain’s ‘clock’, which in my opinion has run far too
long.”

I started to speak, but she held up a
finger, “What you MIGHT be able to do if you are stealthy, smart
and very lucky, is reach the place where they have your father
imprisoned and set him free. Once you have an Archimage on your
side, the balance of power may shift quite a bit, you might have
some hope of winning.”

“
So, rescue dad, and then
take on the dark duo.”

She smiled, “It will not be easy,
trust me. If you do release your father, the best thing to do is
retreat, make a new plan, and start a coordinated
offensive.”

“
Really, I would rather
just cut off Medrod’s head, grab Ziny and go.”

She shook her head, “That’s your
father’s blood speaking. If you took after me, you would do a lot
more planning before taking any action.”

“
So that’s an Albus
thing?”

“
Very much so,” she said.
Then she added, “You know, rescuing your father isn’t going to be
easy, he was rescued once before, and because of that, I’m sure
Morgain put a lot of protections around him this time.”

“
What do you mean, ‘he was
rescued’?”

She shrugged, “I don’t have all the
details, but a spy reported about another Archimage who came and
released your father. That’s when he battled Medrod and eventually
ended his son’s line. However, while he was weakened from battle,
Morgain managed to recapture him and put the Archimage of Sivaeral
back in his prison. As to what can hold an Archimage, I have no
idea.”

I thought about that, and then said,
“Which Archimage helped to free him the first time, maybe we can
get them to help us again, or at least tell us how he freed my
father the first time?”

“
I don’t know; my spy did
not get that information to me before he was killed. It would be
very foolish to ask all of the Archimages, which would inform them
of your father’s imprisonment. If they learn the Archimage of Abal
is helpless, some of the others might come to conquer this House
and this World.”

“
Like Earth,” I
said.

She nodded, “Earth has been a House
battleground for thousands of its years, though no one has managed
to wrest control permanently. There were a few close calls, the
empire of Rome was a bid by the Hentans, and they gathered in a
large part of the world. Then there were the two attempts by the
Dokkalfar, called the First and Second World War.”

“
Hitler caused the Second
World War,” I noted.

She shrugged, “I never liked that
Dokkalfar wizard.”

“
Hitler was a
wizard?”

She nodded, “You don’t think he swayed
all those poor German minds with just his oratory prowess? And why
would anyone follow such an ugly little human, unless he was
governing their minds?”

I shook my head and then said, “Well,
I’m glad Hitler is dead then.”

“
Oh, I don’t think his line
has ended, his mother, Kali, the Archimage of House Dokkalfar,
stepped in and pulled him out before the allied Houses of Argoth
and Tarvos could end him.”