Alexei swallowed hard, his mouth was as dry as a pile of bones in the desert. Staring down a room full of angry mages, all with different foci aimed directly at your chest, had a way of making a person just a little bit uncomfortable. “I promise you, I mean no harm,” Alexei stated, “I have come here for help, and help only.” The mages shifted at that, they shared furtive glances as they muttered words that Alexei couldn’t quite catch. “And what is it you need help with that you couldn’t approach the temple through the normal channels?” Asked another mage from within the group. There were, of course, ways to petition the mage temple for assistance. But it was long, arduous, and often the mages wouldn’t bother lifting a finger unless there was something that could be learned or studied from the experience. “My need is an urgent one,” Alexei explained, “If it is not dealt with swiftly, I may not make it through to the next day.” More shifty looks. More quiet muttered words. “And
The inner sanctum of the Mage Temple was a place Alexei had never expected to see for himself. Long ago, there had been a time when those who wielded the power divine and those who practised true magery got on just fine. But these days the animosity between the two sects of power made such collaboration near impossible. That was why, as his mage guide rapped her knuckles on the large ornate door of the inner sanctum of the Mage Temple, Alexei felt a shiver lance its way down his spine. The only reason Mages didn’t fight on the front lines was due to the nature of the enemy, they devoured magic like it was an afternoon snack, and his body didn’t have that luxury. He may have been able to take on one mage, maybe two if they were surprised by his exploding powder tricks, but to be invited into the inner sanctum would leave no room for error. If they decided that they didn’t like him, and they wanted to be rid of him, there was nothing Alexei would be able to do to combat them.
Alexei had wanted to go and retrieve Neave himself so that the girl didn’t freak out at any of the mages that had been sent to pick her up. Unfortunately, the mages hadn’t agreed with that. Apparently walking around while the Nilbog was still attached to his spiritual essence was a less than ideal plan. At any point, the creature could jump off of him and latch onto someone else, something that it wouldn’t be able to do while at the Mage Temple due to the spiritual hardening that all of the mages in the temple had learned. That was something that would have helped had he known it before he went down into the black market. Either way, the other people of the city wouldn’t have any spiritual hardening, and as such, they would have been prime targets for the Nilbog. I hadn’t understood why the Nilbog would jump ship at first, it wanted my divine powers after all. But if it were a choice between elimination by a mage or jumping into someone random, I’d have probably taken the la
The night was still a long way off, and that was the only time that they would be able to do battle with the Nilbog. So instead Alexei and Risa had a plan in mind, they were going to test Neave’s magical potential. All beings were born with at least some access to the magic of the universe, but not all beings were given that access equally. If Neave didn’t have enough influence to unlock the higher strata of magical ability then there wouldn’t be much that she would gain from our time in the Mage Temple. If she had potential, however, then she could end up becoming a mage just like many of the others in the temple. In all honesty, Alexei didn’t care too much if Neave was able to become a mage or not, but he knew the girl would feel left out if she didn’t have the potential within her and he’d rather her not have to deal with that. Besides, having someone else who could do magic around would be a great help in the future, no matter what venture they ended up exploring after
To match an Initiate in raw power was less impressive than it sounded on paper. On average the raw fighting ability of initiates and mages actually tended to average out the longer the mage trained in the ways of magery. As usual, the only reason Initiates were deemed to be more powerful by people who didn’t entirely know what was going on was because the power divine could be used to fight shades, while normal magic was incapable of such a feat. Either way, Alexei was still very glad to learn that Neave had the potential to become a great mage. If nothing else they’d have the skill set to become adventurers, not that Alexei had ever planned for that to be the case. There was a small part of him that still wanted to go back to his plan of being a roaming water salesman, though he knew the chances of that ever happening at this point were becoming vanishingly small. The trio ascended back up the flagstone steps of the temple and emerged in a much nicer area than the dungeon-
Alexei took a bite of his sandwich, for something that was created solely by magic working off of his intent it was an impressive bit of cheese and pickle. [Analysis complete!]Within a single bite of his food, the analysis bar of his power divine shot up from halfway full to completely done. [New Element: Manacule discovered!][New Combination: Empowered Oxygen available!][New Combination: Empowered Hydrogen available!][New Combination: Empowered Sodium available!][Further combinations based on these elements have been unlocked!]Alexei blinked and glanced down at his sandwich. His thoughts came in a rush. When he touched his foci for the first time, that was when this analysis had begun. He’d wondered whether it was some kind of wood, or the magic itself… now he had his answer. It had been the magic, and now he had access to magic at its most base and primal form. Manacules. He’d never even heard of Manacules before. “You okay, Alexei?” Risa asked, “You kinda spaced out the
“I thought you would have known…” Risa said, her voice no higher than a whisper. “The Academy… The Royal Defence Corps leadership… they know, so why don’t you?” “I don’t know Risa, but I’m beginning to think that not everything may be as it seems with the RDC and the Academy,” Alexei said between deep breaths. He was trying to keep calm, both for the sake of Neave and Risa and for his own mental state. It wouldn’t be right away, but eventually he was going to have to go back to the Academy, and when he did he was going to confront the Administrar. There were too many coincidences starting to build up. Lies that had been told, events that had happened. The Assassins of Delsi had appeared so quickly after he had been kicked out of the Academy that it was slowly starting to dawn on Alexei that there had only ever really been one option for who could have set them after him… and the answer was the Academy itself. He clenched a fist and clamped his teeth together painfully hard. It
After getting washed up, Alexei and Neave both spent the afternoon reading by the fireplace. The room that they had been given had access to many things, including a summoning stand that allowed them free reign over the library of the Mage Temple. He’d learnt his lesson about testing anything with magic after the whole sandwich exploding incident, but that didn’t mean that Alexei didn’t want to know a bit more about what he was getting himself into. So, when choosing his book, he’d decided to go with something related to his problem. A bestiary, noting down different creatures and monsters across the ages. The one he had, in particular, was about creatures that were most active before the last major war between nations and he had the yellowed pages turned to that of the Nilbog. Unfortunately, the Nilbog pages didn’t really tell him much more than he already knew. Well, other than the secret to defeating the beast, that was.It was a Goblin class creature that was first born of t