Broken Mage (10 page)

Once the dwarf was fed Thad sat back
and stared at the wall wondering what his friends were up to. He
had held hopes that he would hear news that Eloen was ok, but now
he was only left to wonder what had become of her. He was also
worried that the princess had been silent for so long. Now with no
way to commutate with her he could only hope that she was
ok.

With little to do except watch his
charge Thad decided to work on the problem of his missing eye in
hopes to stave away the depression that threated to consume him. He
could still see but more than once he had stumbled thinking things
were farther than they were. Day to day it would simply be annoying
but during a fight such a miscalculation could cost him his life or
if he was wielding strong magic, someone else’s.

He had experimented with making an
enchanted eye before though its use was to mimic his magical sight.
It had worked fairly well but he had run into the problem that it
needed precise instructions to function and once set they could not
be altered.

After cutting a few small gems from one
of the larger ones he had saved for Avalanche’s meal Thad coated
them with a small layer of iron. Even with the gems ready for
enchanting Thad had to create a spell to place on them.

He had never had a reason to make a
spell to see for him before. First he needed to know how the eyes
worked. He couldn’t check his own eyes. He had tried before.
Anytime he tried to check himself with his magical sight it had
always looked like a barren spot. That was probably the reason the
magical book he had found had strongly warned against using magic
to alter or enhance one’s own body. If he had been born an internal
magical user he could simply regrow his leg and eye. Then again he
wouldn’t be able to enchant or use most of the other magic’s he had
grown accustomed to.

Luckily he had another creature around
to study. Focusing Thad studied how the dwarf’s eyes were working.
Even in his sleep they were moving back and forth frantically.
There wasn’t a large amount of activity going on with the dwarf’s
eyes but Thad was sure with the limited amount of information he
could make a magical replica.

Making a magical eye was far more
difficult than anything he had tried before due to its complexity.
The first try worked in a way, though instead of showing things as
he saw them everything was shown by variances of heat. It was a
unique way to see things. Even the walls heat varied slightly from
one section to another. It must be how the dwarf and other
creatures of the subterranean world could see without the use of
light. Though it wasn’t what he was looking for Thad made a mental
note of the nightsight spell, in case he wanted to use it in the
future.

It took long hours of slightly tweaking
the spell before he was able get it to the desired effect. He could
see even with his eyes closed. It was odd as he made his magical
eye float down the barren corridors. The more he played with the
spell the more uses he could find for it. As an enchantment it
would be greatly limited having to have a fixed point, but that
didn’t mean he couldn’t use it in spell form whenever he wanted to
know what was happening in a perceived blind spot.

With the spell worked out all he had to
do was begin the enchanting. It turned out to be much harder than
he had thought. The first time he hadn’t linked it to himself and
while he could tell the enchantment was working it didn’t let him
see through it. He had linked things to himself before and knew the
dangers. If the gem or body was damaged it could cause massive
damage to him. His first rune necklace had been taken from him and
luckily nothing had happened to it before he had been able to break
the link.

After giving it a good deal of thought
Thad decided that it was well worth the benefit. Continuing on Thad
started in on his second attempt, this time while he had linked it
to himself he hadn’t set a focal point and everything came in
skewed and blurry. His third attempt was a success as he set the
focal point on the center of the exposed portion of the gem. Now
any direction the gem was moved he could see as if it were his
natural eye.

Thad knew he couldn’t simply hold the
eye all the time and while sticking it in his empty eye socket
would solve that problem it didn’t solve the problem on how to make
it move in coordination with his other eye.

After three more attempts Thad had
everything ready. It took a total of six gems. The main one for
sight though extremely complicated it didn’t take a large amount of
magic to use and as long as he shut it down when he slept it should
easily be able to keep up without having to have multiple copies.
Four of the others were linked to his other eye each one dedicated
to a specific direction. The last one was an extra that allowed his
eye to switch from the normal vision to nightsight. It wasn’t
absolutely needed but Thad figured it might come in
handy.

All that was left was to make one of
the appropriate size. Thad had purposely used small gems for his
tests and while it worked there was no way it could hold up to
extended use. The only problem was that he was running low on iron.
While it didn’t take a large amount Thad wanted to make sure the
magical eye was protected.

While searching through his pack Thad
found the bar of metal he had taken from the metal monster earlier
in the day. It was light, which was a bonus but he wasn’t sure if
it was strong enough to hold up to repeated punishment. It wasn’t
as if Thad planned to get hit in the face over and over but the
last thing he wanted was for his head to explode from a lucky
punch.

Thad didn’t want to use his sword
against the metal. While it was great against magical items it was
still just a simple sword against anything else and he didn’t want
to risk breaking it. Spotting the dwarf’s axe against the far wall
Thad had an idea. Placing the metal ingot on the ground Thad lifted
the axe onto his shoulder ready to strike. Thad was still surprised
at the sheer weight of the weapon. Using all his strength Thad
swung the massive beast and was rewarded when a ringing noise
filled the small enclosed room.

The axe had cut into the ingot cutting
a deep gash about of third of the way through the metal. It wasn’t
perfect but given the weapon he was using Thad wasn’t sure any
other metal would have fared half as well. With the metal decided
he just needed to cut the gem to use as the center core. The ones
he had with him while good for basic enchantments didn’t have the
purity he was looking for.

Not wanting to waste countless hours
searching the nearby tunnels with his magical sight looking for
gems of high purity and magical containment Thad pulled one of the
gems that he had pulled from the monster out. Unlike his first
assumption the gems were not sapphires. While they appeared to work
like gems to his mage sight they were far more efficient than
anything he had encountered before. Even diamonds that his book had
exclaimed as being the best gems to use paled in comparison to the
bright blue stone he held in his hand.

The gem was twice the size that he
needed so he was sure that he could use it for all six gems with
some left over. With its strength Thad was sure that even if he
left it on it could stay charged without trouble. It only took a
few hours to get the gem cut and covered in two layers of metal.
The first layer had the enchantment on it and a second thicker
layer was placed over it to help protect it. Thad only left a small
area of the gem exposed only slightly larger than the iris of his
natural eye.

When he was finished Thad was more than
a little apprehensive of putting the gem in his eye socket. It
burned a little as it slid into place. Once inside it felt weird as
the cold metal moved around with his natural eye. Though it felt
odd it worked to perfection allowing him to see as well as when he
had had both of his eyes.

With his sight restored Thad decided to
take a walk around the outside cavern. After a couple turns around
the area Thad switched to nightsight and learned that he had to
close his other eye or suffer a massive headache from the mixed
sight.

Happy with his test run Thad decided to
make one more stop before heading back to check on his unconscious
friend. It only took Thad a few hours to make more than enough
ingots than he could fit into his pack. Though they weighed little
there were too many for him to carry alone so Thad used his staff
to float them back to his sanctuary.

CHAPTER VIII

It was three days before the dwarf
finally opened his eyes for the first time. During that time Thad
had experimented with the metal trying to learn everything he could
from it. He had long since cut up the entirety of the monster and
had him stacked in ingot form against the wall. He had also made
new magical walls using the metal and pieces of the sapphire like
gem. They could be put up and taken down numerous times in one day
without having to worry about them running low on magical
energy.

The first time the dwarf opened his
eyes Thad ran to him hopeful, but it was short lived as he quickly
fell back to sleep. Checking the man’s condition he noticed that
the swelling was almost gone. If his waking even if for a short
period of time was any hint soon he would be able to converse with
his new friend.

It was none too soon either. Fresh fish
was getting harder and harder to find. On his last trip to the
underground river he had had to walk for several miles before he
had been able to find a single fish. He had more than enough water
to last having made three large containers out of some of the metal
he had salvaged.

Later that day the dwarf stirred again
this time waking enough to sit up. The dwarf looked like he was
still in a good amount of pain. As soon as he had begun to move
Thad was at his side handing him a cup of water. The dwarf took the
offered water and gulped it down greedily with small amounts
spilling from the side of his mouth.

“Are you feeling better?” Thad asked
his voice laced with concern.

The dwarf opened his mouth as if to
speak but only a raspy noise issued from his mouth. The dwarf
looked stunned and reached up and felt his throat and tried to
speak again. It was easy for Thad to tell the dwarf was none too
happy with the situation and looked at him with
contempt.

“I didn’t do it. After I killed that
monstrosity I put up some protective walls and have been nursing
you for days.” Thad said putting his hands out in a placating
gesture.

The dwarf looked him over carefully. It
was slightly unnerving to be under such scrutiny. Thad held still
keeping his hands far away from the hilt of his sword not wanting
to enrage the dwarf. When his eyes fell on his axe the dwarf tried
to jump up from his mat and ran into the wall a few paces
away.

Thad tried to help the dwarf to his
feet but he was quickly and easily pushed away. Without his shield
on Thad felt the full force of the dwarf’s mighty arms and was sure
he would have a good sized bruise in the morning.

The dwarf got to his feet again this
time making slower and more confident steps. When he reached his
weapon he picked it up and held it like a lost lover. Thad had
never seen anyone hold their weapon with such tenderness. For a
brief moment Thad worried that the blow to the head had addled the
dwarf more than a little.

The dwarf tried to speak once again but
nothing came out. Obviously frustrated the dwarf started
pantomiming with his hands. The dwarf raised his right hand far
above his head and then began acting like he was fighting. At first
Thad didn’t know what he was doing but after a few moments Thad got
the jest of what the dwarf was trying to get at.

“I used my sword destroy its core.” At
Thad’s words the dwarf merely looked confused. After a few moments
he put both his hands up and shrugged his shoulders. Great Thad
thought to himself not only couldn’t the dwarf speak even if he
could it didn’t seem like they spoke the same language.

Thad pulled his sword out slowly and
pointed to it with his off hand. The dwarf held out his hand and
Thad quickly obliged and handed the weapon over. The dwarf studied
the sword for a few moments until his face contorted into
anger.

Thad soon found the blade of his own
sword dangerously close to his throat. Thad wasn’t sure what the
dwarf was mad at but he quickly activated his shield ring. It was
one thing to spend days nursing the guy back to health. It was
another to let the dwarf remove his head from his shoulders over a
misunderstanding.

Thad wasn’t sure what to do to get the
dwarf to calm down but he knew he had to get the sword back. Though
he had raised his shield he doubted the sword would pay anymore
heed to it than it had the last time he had faced it. He could call
for his staff but he was afraid that the sword would cut through it
as easily as it had the metal monster, than he would be in a real
bind. Instead he simply tried to talk calmly hoping the dwarf would
get the idea that he wasn’t a threat to him.

After a few tense moments Avalanche
decided it was her time to make an entrance. Thad never heard her
enter the small room and from the look on the dwarfs face when she
latched her razor sharp teeth onto the arm holding his sword
neither had the dwarf. As soon as Avalanche clamped down the dwarf
dropped the sword and reached for his axe. Thad not wasting any
time dove for the sword while blasting the dwarf with a small ball
of fire at the same time.