Battle Mage: Winds of Change (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 11) (27 page)

He laughed at the idea and knew that she was being facetious in her wish. "I can only be my own moral compass. If they aren't asking my opinion, I won't bother to give it."

Her blue eyes probed his in the morning light. The sounds of the city awakening and starting their business could be heard even in the rear courtyard. The girl replied quietly, though he still heard, "And I wish you could give the needle a spin once in awhile."

Serrena walked up the pathway around the corner of the inn looking up in surprise to see them waiting for her already. The fire wizard had stayed in a room she held in her guild hall. There was little reason to spend her wages on food and lodging when the guild had nice enough accommodations and free meals ready every morning.

"You're here already? Am I late?" the wizard with the curly auburn hair asked shaking her head. Caught by the morning sunlight, red highlights made the hairs on her head nearly match her wizard tunic. She wore brown pants and boots assuming that they would be working on welding the metal bars today.

"We're just waiting on Elzen," he replied with a slight smile.

The wizard had walked back to the guild hall alone before the excitement with Olan began. He would have offered to walk her back to the guild if she had waited for him to return from making the amulet; but Serrena was a fire wizard who didn't worry over someone thinking she was just a frail woman walking in the night.

They didn't have to wait very long. The back door opened and the mage finished adjusting his belt. While it had a dagger sheathed there, Elzen didn't bother with any other noticeable weapons. Like Sebastian, he already had the storage rune, but was probably more deadly without a sword than with one in hand anyway.

"If you both are ready, we can head to White Hall then," he stated.

Serrena queried quickly, "We aren't going to walk to the Fire Wizard guild I assume, since you told me to meet you here."

It was obvious that the wizard didn't feel like repeating her trip for nothing and Sebastian answered the question by calling out, "Door."

The golden glow of a new portal answered Serrena easily enough. Their arrival inside the portal courtyard inside White Hall looked to have caught more than a few workers off guard. It was still somewhat early for the school being a few hours of sunlight different from Hala.

Sebastian turned to note the stone defenses built in less than twenty-four hours by a team of earth wizards. Even now there were multiple teams of apprentices and masters working to finish the changes.

There were two new towers with short walls extending into the courtyard area for attaching the metal portal frame. Since the walled in section wasn't as large as that of the Hala portal court, the wizards had destroyed part of the walls on either side to make room for the new additions. Looking past the two towers growing quickly, he spotted a third tower built where the northern, inner wall met the outer.

The wizards of White Hall had decided to radically change the existing space to make sure that they would be safe. There were students, a future generation of Southwall, to consider and the leaders didn't take their safety lightly.

Even the beginnings of special openings in the outer wall had been started. They would eventually add cauldrons of heated oil that could be poured down on an enemy expecting an easy entry into the school. It was part of the proposed defenses he had mentioned as well. Though Sebastian doubted every courtyard could be built the same way, the mage wished that he could just send a blue print with the desired changes to each city to make things easier and quicker for him in the long run.

A wizard in brown hurried over. He was shorter than the mage and broad in the shoulders. His bald head and long thick beard made Sebastian think of an oversized dwarf, though he had never seen one of that race in his travels in person yet.

"You must be that mage we're breaking our backs for," the man stated grumpily. His eyes looked dark with a lack of sleep, but scowl lines looked etched into the man's face, so he was likely grouchy regularly anyway. "I am Wizard Telamen. I've been blessed with the honor of working most of the night with my fellow earth wizards, just so you can be accommodated and not be delayed from your oh so important work," he finished sarcastically as the wizard obviously believed that a mage's work couldn't be as important as his own.

Sebastian ignored the man's grouchy attitude and stated in admiration, "It is very impressive and looks far enough along that we can begin assembling the frame."

Without bothering to call on the rune with any words, the mage pushed his magic into the oval shape causing it to lift away and grow to near the size of a window. He caused it to tip over and the rods of metal began to rain onto the ground just below it. With the thirteen pieces of iron spat out, Sebastian closed the door once again letting it settle back onto his forearm.

Telamen stood with his jaw dropped open for a long moment. When Sebastian's team began to carry the pieces closer to the door leading into the walkway, the wizard finally asked, "What kind of spell is that? There were no words and the mark lifted from you like magic."

"It is called rune magic. I have been trying to get the concept of this spread from Hala, but this new project has been forced onto me first. That's what I get for inventing something new, I suppose," the young man stated cavalierly.

The wizard blinked disregarding Sebastian's casual attitude towards the new line of magic that would help wizards, battle mages and regular soldiers in the long run. It would take a lot of work to spread the runes throughout the entire country's forces, but if he could teach more how to do it; then it would no longer be on him to spread the runes. The gates might be his problem for a lot longer, however.

"Harumph," Telamen said clearing his throat as he tried to shrug off his surprise. "Well, the sooner such knowledge can be spread to wizards with similar skills ...and battle mages too, I suppose, the easier it will get. Certainly it wouldn't do to have only one man capable of such things. Should something happen to you, the gods forbid, it would be lost once more."

The wizard turned before Sebastian could summon any form of answer for the typically weighted summary that wizards should have everything he knew, Telamen turned to shout at a boy in novice white, "Job, make yourself useful and run to the main office. Tell them the mage is here to work on the gate."

A boy of only thirteen, Job jumped at his mentor's order and practically ran full speed towards the door. Sebastian wondered if it was the need to please or the chance to run away that instilled such speed in the boy. Either way, he was reprimanded to slow down by one of the guards by the door and the novice did slow slightly.

"What do you need us to do to help?" Telamen asked before stifling a yawn with just the strength of his jaws, but Sebastian could see that the man fought it as his jaw trembled slightly as did his lips.

"Not a lot until the frame is constructed. I have wizards to form the welds, but haven't been able to pass on the knowledge to anyone for the rest. The problem is that I do much of it by feel and that makes it harder to pass along the skill."

Looking curiously at the mage, Wizard Telamen asked, "Would you mind if I tagged along this time? Perhaps I can pick up something while tethered to you. We do the same with novices and apprentices teaching them how to sense things through the ground after all."

Sebastian shrugged. While he had become used to sharing with Yara and Ashleen, it had been longer since he had tried tethering someone on his spell besides the girls. "The girls are doing rather simple welds first, but if you would like to try when they're done, then I have no problem with that."

The man nodded looking less grumpy, but Sebastian decided that the man's face must have become naturally that way over time.

While the girls worked to weld and his mages assisted by holding the rods in place, Telamen asked him more of what he would see during Sebastian's process. Doing his best to explain, the two spent much of the remaining hour with the mage explaining and the wizard trying to decipher the thoughts into a more wizardly way of thinking.

When it became time to do the final construction, High Wizard Herrol and Falconi Garrett had arrived along with a small contingent of leaders hoping to understand more of what he was about to do. They stayed to the side, but in view of the mage and the wizard with his hand on Sebastian's back. Their eyes glowed looking for any clues they could discern as the owl built the system of runes and smoothed out any weaknesses in the welds.

The two lodestones disappeared into the channels within the metal as they had in Hala and he added the locking rune to turn the portal. By the time the metal frame had been raised and the earth wizards helped cement it in place between the stone walls and towers, the show was over.

He looked to Telamen as the man looked to be mulling over what he had seen and asked, "Were you able to follow all of it?"

First letting out a grunt filled with distraction and frustration too probably, the wizard gave a more articulate reply saying, "Some of it. The work with the iron, even to installing the runes, I might be able to duplicate if you could write them down at least. What you did to the lodestones would take a little experimentation. I've never seen anyone bond stone to iron in such a way before.

"It was like you used veins to draw the essence into the metal. No offense to you, but I would have thought that was something a wizard might have a chance to create, not a mere battle mage."

Serrena overheard his comment and stated in annoyance, "Maybe that is because Sebastian is anything but a 'mere' battle mage. Those who continue to miss that have often come to a bad end underestimating him, in the duel circles at least."

Looking irritatedly at the younger fire wizard, the man complained, "Fine, I didn't know that you were policing my words so closely woman! I said not to take offense, didn't I?

"You are right though. Even tethered to him, his magic doesn't feel like a battle mage, though it is remarkably different from a wizard as well. It isn't just the power in him that feels different, but how it is carried within him. There is a definite strength that I can't quite wrap my mind around, but then again I can't completely figure out his mind either."

Sebastian figured to take it as a compliment and tried to get back to his original question. "If I could write out the runes used, do you think that you could make the gates?"

Grunting a laugh at the younger man, Telamen said in amusement, "Are you trying to get me to do your work for you, mage?"

With a shrug and smile, Sebastian replied, "Well, as you said earlier, if I can teach a few wizards how to do my job, it will make my life easier."

Giving a big laugh, the man clapped him on the back and Sebastian had to adjust his feet taking a step with the earth wizard's strength. He doubted that Telamen even realized how strong he was. The wizard didn't even bother to comment beyond his amusement at Sebastian's take on the idea of passing on the knowledge of the gates.

High Wizard Herrol and Falconi Garrett moved closer leading the head wizards and mages of the school to speak to the creator of the new gate.

Herrol led the questioning and Sebastian quickly demonstrated the ability of the rune to restrict the doorway and the use of it for flipping the portal. By the time all their questions were answered, Sebastian felt his stomach beginning to rumble with the need to eat. It wasn't a drastic need as he had noted with the previous creation of the Hala gate, but a lot of power was used and it was much easier to refill his energy by eating.

Most of the wizards and mages joined him for lunch making for bit of a stir in the dining hall. It was rare to see the high wizard joining them as his meals were normally brought to him in his tower. For some that meant a disassociation with him as head master, but beyond that, seeing so many of the guild leaders and falconi at one table around the single mage was unheard of.

Ashleen and his team had actually needed to get a separate table, though it was right behind Sebastian as if to say that they had his back; but Sebastian was becoming more comfortable with having to speak with leaders of the various guilds. He had spoken to the king of all of Southwall after all, so anyone else was likely to be less impressive to the young mage.

As he had figured, Sebastian would need to spend a few days at least trying to find others who could understand the rune magic to help spreading the runes to those who could benefit the most, the soldiers in the army. Having rune soldiers in the field would take a lot of the heat off of the battle mages, whose power better defended wizards from the monsters of the Dark One's armies.

He would also try to see if anyone could figure out how to make the gates. Certainly having more teams to cover the many cities needing the defensive portals would help ensure their safety. There were other jobs and duties that Sebastian had to put aside for now as he worked to secure the gates of Southwall against the enemy.

After the wizards had moved on leaving Sebastian with Falconi Garrett, the mage broached one of the subjects weighing on his mind. "Falconi, would you mind giving me some guidance?"

Smiling at the younger mage, Garrett replied, "The mage being called an owl needs my guidance? I thought maybe that had ended when you became a falcon."

Returning the smile with one filled with chagrin, Sebastian answered, "Well, no matter how old we get or how much we think that we know, there is always someone with a different viewpoint and knowledge that we don't have. No one can know everything."