“How cold it is here… I don’t understand how they can live on this cursed island! However, this is not so important! I was able to get to Cardenwig without incident, had to look away from these women, hide and steal food, but I still got there! However, you can’t stay here: the old woman has eyes everywhere, and they are already looking for me! I'll try to collect food for the journey - I need to run! Now just west. On Ora, inhabited by people, there is nowhere to hide an entire library. If you're reading this, then you've made it here too. Be careful! The best thing to do is run now!”Tobius bit his lip thoughtfully as he reread the message. If his predecessor hadn't perished here, then he had gone further... west? Coming out from behind the stag, the wizard looked towards the chamber.The gates of the banquet hall were wide open, and half-drunk suitors walked out of them, accompanied by the Orians, in clubs of warm fragrant steam. They walked with songs and laughter, stomping loudly
But the frivolity of the Oryek was feigned. Since his “cell” was in the barracks, there could be no shortage of guards by definition. In addition, the room in which the southerner was locked up was filled with spirits. Dozens of small ephemeral entities, probably drawn from some small thing like a stone, an icicle, something else. For the magician, these little things did not pose the slightest threat, he would have dispersed them with one Invisible Gong, but then, he had no doubt, the old woman, without pity or warning, would pounce on him with everything she had. And she was strong, many times older, more experienced and more cunning than a young reev. Tobius had strong doubts about his victory in the battle with Orza. So I decided to sit quietly and not touch the spirits.Sleeping on a hard bed was surprisingly comfortable. Having been captured, the master for the first time since the day of descent to the Ori coast was able to sleep properly, and then eat. Waking up, he saw next t
“I picked her up, that means a deer, pulled her out, and she attacked me with a dagger!” Well, I drove my forehead into her cheekbone. And so our love began.- It's very romantic!“Yeah, whistle more,” Yorman smiled, “suddenly I’ll believe it!” I'm not a local fool who sighs at the thought of a strong woman, behind whom is like behind a stone wall! I was a Reeve, and they called me Martan until they called me an Orian and named Yormen. Leave the romance for my sons, who squeal like young brides at the sight of horsemen's warriors, ugh, muslin kitchen peasants!Yorman was clearly not delighted with the way his sons had grown up, although he loved them.“Sometimes I feel like I’ve done a lot myself…”“You can’t say for you,” the wizard hastened to assure, “if I met you at home, I would try to bypass you, away from sin.”“Uh-huh, and here I’m exactly the damned cook, while my fool goes on military campaigns and squeezes herself there with her subordinate women, deviant wiggle-tail!” Yorm
“Be careful, woman. You may have been born with a weapon in your hands, but only I am a wizard, and for me all your strength is a modest and harmless thing. You try to hurt me again and I will hurt you. He unclenched his fingers of steel and made a mask of regret. Sorry, I really don't like being hurt. I just hate it. Keep the card for yourself.- When do you intend to leave? Yofrid asked.“Soon, mistress. I can right now… No, I can’t now, the night is not over yet. But I can before dawn. I would like to speak with your adviser.— Orzoy?- Certainly. Who else here can you ask for sound advice? - A small attack in the direction of the senior combatant was a success.- You are being escorted.Accompanied by warriors, Tobius went deep into the halls of the konani. They did not make a big impression on him: outside the decorated banquet hall, dark short corridors with poor heating seemed abandoned and inhospitable. A lot of stairs, doors, cold nooks, everything is crumpled, there is littl
Camaront froze at first, and then his brain finally realized that he was dead, and the beast fell heavily onto the stones. His body swayed for a long time to the screams and howls of his relatives. They were not very upset by the death of the ruling king, and the applicants almost immediately began to redistribute the territory. They tried not to pay too much attention to the little wizard.Tobius drew a ritual knife from its scabbard, twirled it between his fingers in an old habit, and approached the huge carcass. It took a long time to peel off a strip of skin and wade through a thick layer of fat, the magician even sweated and undressed to the waist to make it easier to work. He ate some warm fat along the way - and soon he was butchering the meat of the defeated beast. The magician baked pieces of red tenderloin on magical fire, sprinkled with spices, which he carried with him in abundance for some rituals, and for the first time in a long time he ate his fill of hot food.Already
Twisting the staff between his fingers, the old man set off down the spiral road at a leisurely walking pace. For a moment, Tobius had a burning desire to hit him in the back with something explosive. Wizardly vengefulness demanded blood for the insult, and his fingers were already twitching, almost starting to weave a battle spell, when the Gray Master pulled himself together. To kill an old man, even such a mighty one, to kill in the back is meanness. The magician's code of honor did not forbid such actions, the authors of the code were entirely misanthropes, but Thobius had his own conscience, and guilt too, but it did not tire of reminding of itself.- Get it, man. And don't slow down!Tobius caught his staff and continued to follow the old man with a sigh. So they went down thirteen tiers, where the impudent escort stopped near a rather unusual building by local standards - a round one. All other structures were either square or rectangular, a kind of ice boxes, or were cut into
The magician finished the paragraph and let his tired hand rest.Why didn't you build cities in your homeland? People began to unite, obeying the natural evolutionary instinct. It is our nature to unite from small communities to large ones ... although if you carry the burden of knowledge and memory of all your ancestors, it must be terribly difficult for you to change something in your life.'We don't like change,' Harul confirmed succinctly.So, who did you meet when you got here?— With many. As homeless as we are.What about the Dalians? Have you seen them?- One.The conversation kind of died. The wizard was patient, and the Majidani were in no hurry to continue.- AND?— A terrible creature that passed by. He did not even see us, but we all felt then that we could die at any moment. Just if this terrible creature wants to kill us. Many fears have known the Majidani since that time, but we remember that fear especially clearly. Worse than dragons.It was a serious statement.- Hm
Thunder from heaven deafened the magician, and he stopped hearing his own thoughts. Trembling with all his being, Tobius raised his head and saw how in the dense dark gray sea of heaven, like a huge whale, a whitish silhouette swam. Spreading his fins, he let out another roar, and Tobius yelped as he fell to his knees. The carcass of the jormundar descended below the level of the clouds and continued its slow, majestic flight. Such a huge, such a heavy beast - seventy tons of bones, muscles, scales and impenetrable bone plates, with a wingspan of about one hundred and seventy-five yards. His roar once again split the world.“The Lord, great and united in the Armory Halls and near the Heavenly Forge, have mercy on Your humble servant and protect ... protect ... oh ... protect ...The dragon turned to the east and went at an angle, looking for prey. The plateau was for him like one huge tray with several moving snacks - oromu did not have time to hide. Thobius could still see the rece
After Tobius Moth entered the Academy grounds in front of hundreds of wizards, everything went awry. After some time, many heard through the Astral the appeal of Tobius, in which he denounced the archmage Shivarius the Polyhedron, calling him a renegade, guilty of the war with the Zulans and sabotage of the Academy. After that, hours passed before the barrier that kept the magicians out of the campus began to lose stability, and they began to diligently hit it with all available spells, despite the constant interference in the form of the air element. In the end, the barrier was broken through, and, having risen to the top of the main tower, the magicians found the rulers of the Academy there in full force, alive and unharmed.The guilt of Shivarius the Polyhedron was confirmed by the words of the stewards, and the wizards of the Academy were ordered to immediately begin the search for the missing traitor. But neither Archmage Shivarius nor Magister Tobius could be found. They weren't
As the Polyhedron and the Free Gyenjoylin battled, Tobius chose the moment tensely. It was not easy, because, unlike himself, Shivarius effortlessly parried and counterattacked the magical creature. He was fast, deadly, masterfully interspersed with sword and staff strikes with magical attacks, pushing the gyanjoilin and lashing him with energy chains that appeared here and there from the air. Shivarius knew plenty of ways to inflict pain and injury on a creature that could disintegrate in smoke and reunite. The moment came, and Thobius did not miss it, dishonorably hitting the archmage in the back with the Ice Drill. The impaled renegade fell to the ground, and the Gyenjoylin immediately struck his chest with his blade. But instead of dying, Shivarius turned into a flock of asps that flew up to the ceiling, merged together, recreating the unharmed body of the wizard, and he collapsed on the back of the gyenjoilin's neck, plunging his sword into his unsteady flesh. Crying terribly, th
And Chaos."I'll tell you what, boy, let me out!" Let me out and I'll kill Shivarius! I swear I'll finish off this nasty bastard, I'll pop him like a stinky pimple and then lick the contents! Don't hesitate, I will! Of course, I'll kill you too, but at least your death will be quick... maybe... I don't know, I haven't decided yet! But you can believe me, I will make Shivarius suffer for a long time!“I came here for nothing.- No, wait, wait, let me out ... no, just loosen the fetters a little! Even a nobody like you can do it, come on, give me a little chance, buddy! Let's!- Never!— Like this, right? And you have no other choice! You can’t do it yourself, boy, the task is not up to you!I was hoping for advice!- What advice?! Do you hear yourself?! What advice were you hoping to hear, slug?! Do you think there is some workaround? Do you think there is a way for a nonentity like you to bring down a colossus like Shivarius?! You live in the real world, motherfucker! In real - not in
— Eishubeihwan.“Master wishes to give me a new name?” the gyenjoylin asked in a leaden voice.- The owner wants to give you this polyhedron. Take it somewhere where no one will see it, throw it as many times as you like - and put the fallen signs into your new name. By doing this, you will become your own master.The tiny wooden craft was in a wide palm, and the gyenjoylin stared at this priceless gift in disbelief.- Can't be…“I am an honest wizard and I keep my word.“Oaths given in the name of the Mage of Mages do not have to be kept before those whom he commanded to rule.“I have always fulfilled my oaths, to whom I gave them, to the king or the goldsmith,” replied the gray master.Gyenjoylin hid the ball in his belt and, materializing the sheath, hid the blade in it.“Shivarius will kill you if he catches you. Hide somewhere else... I don't know how you could beat him."Even with your help?" Tobius slid along the edge of the abyss. - I do not intend to change my decision, altho
The danger was warned by a sharp gust of wind, which was nowhere to be expected in a room devoid of windows or a second exit. Tobius jumped back just in time to avoid being hit by lightning. Directly under the ceiling, on huge bright wings, a giant butterfly soared, fanned by a halo of iridescent glow. This beautiful creature would become an appropriate guest in innocent children's dreams, if fireballs, lightning and deadly ice arrows did not rain down from its delightful wings, from which the wizard had to leave insane zigzags.He blocked part of the attacks, diligently answered, attacked, maneuvered, defended himself, attacked again, but the butterfly flew quickly, beat accurately and accurately and did not know fatigue. It was Bambaleska, one of Pongemonius' beasts, summoned to Valemar by Shivarius the Polyhedron. Saturated with her master's magic like nectar, she set up an ambush near the ipspiroch and patiently waited for the stupid young wizard to reach for the artifact. Fightin
Tobius tossed all three blueprints forward, energized them, and trapped the spirit in a triangular trap. Boards with luminous lines revolved around the pascantes, held together only occasionally by discharges of magical power running between them. Thobius cast a banishing spell, using the sharp knob of his staff to draw a polysyllabic drawing in the air with a septagram at its base. Pascantes pounded with his fists on the barrier that stopped him; He tore through the Gray Wall fairly quickly, but the second trick really gave him trouble. The revolving blueprints contracted as Thobius cast the spell, and the gray magister had only to “squeeze” a little to throw the pascantes somewhere in the area of the Arimead archipelago, when the spirit nevertheless split one of the typesetting wooden plates and freed itself.The magic system could not exist with less than three reference coordinates. The next blow knocked the spirit out of Tobius, he flew off into the open interior of the cabinet
— Open it, there is a lot of interesting things in this book, but the most important thing for you is now on the flyleaf. Come on, open it up and try to read it.Thobius obeyed, opening a sheet of the thinnest parchment, which had yellowed with time, and saw on it an even line drawn in blue, barely distinguishable ink. On a hunch, he touched the badges, pouring a drop of his magic into them, and they shone as if filled with blue flames.Jassar... Ansafarus? Something quivered in Tobius's soul and exploded.“I remember what it was like to hold for the first time something that Jassar himself once held before me. And not just holding on. He created this book, created the matter of which it is composed, inscribed everything in it, from the first to the last character. It's Jassar's book, Tobius. I went through the arms of death and great torment to get to it, entered the Wild Land with a dozen faithful, experienced, proven associates, friends whom I loved like brothers and sisters ... an
"What does that mean, charm?!" - the officer shouted, trying to block the screams of the indignant crowd.“It’s just that sometimes people need a little help to be human.But no one heard him. The guard held back the indignant, flying from everywhere, but rotten vegetables and insulting words did not reach; the irritated city fathers hurriedly retreated, accompanied by guards - they, too, could have been punished for a disrupted performance, although they were not to blame for anything. Tobius, on the other hand, looked around carefully and thought - people deliberately save rotten meat until better times, so that later they can throw it at someone, or some quick-witted hawkers go through the crowd and sell spoiled food for everyone, before some drunkard is wrapped in pads and it will be possible to use the sufferer's face as a target?The magician struck the ground with his staff, and his voice sounded like thunder, reaching the ears of all those gathered:It was my prisoner! I fough
He walked around the building, as he had done on his first visit. The walls of the inn were protected by prayers that warded off not only evil, but magic itself as it is. It was impossible to get inside, but Tobius was not used to looking at the world from the height of a chicken perch, he looked wide and far, like a soaring eagle. Mainly because he had a flexible, inquisitive mind, but the ability to fly also helped.Soaring on the Wings of an Eagle, the wizard climbed to the very top of the tower, to where Marin had an office. Having looked into the windows that had not been washed for a long time and making sure that the holy grace does not protect them, the gray master broke several glasses and got inside.Despite the fragments that scattered on the floor, the former office did not begin to seem any more dirty; a mess, mixed with desolation, already reigned inside. There was no doubt that someone, most likely experienced "sniffers" of Investments, climbed the premises far and wide